The Divine Chronicles: The Last Heir
by Aewynessa
Summary: The past never stays buried. Ever since she was a kit, Mona had been the school outcast. Despite being treated poorly, she always dreamed of forming an exploration team. When her world crumbles after a devastating tragedy, her dreams gain a darker motive. Now fueled on a path of vengeance, she must survive the mounting dangers from her enemies with the help of her friends.
1. Prologue

**\- Prologue -**

It had been three days since he had last seen the sun. A cold wind tousled his fur as he stood at the edge of a cliff. From below him resounded clangs of steel upon steel, a testament to the frothing melee that he was observing. Color flashed like fireworks amidst the combatants; although, they made for a very poor light show.

The paw resting on the hilt of his sword curled tightly around the two-handed grip. Some of his comrades relished in the glory of battle, seeking ever-higher pedestals of fame constructed from the blood of the deceased. He found no joy, no satisfaction, in waging war.

Yet it had to be done.

Behind him came the sound of pounding feet and heavy breathing. He lowered his gaze to his sword and purposefully loosed his grip. It would do him no favors to waver in his focus now.

"General Lukes, sir! The Fallen have advanced along the eastern ridge and plan to flank us at the pass," a messenger reported, standing at attention.

The general lifted his eyes to the messenger, a young scyther no more than fourteen. Pokémon like him had little idea as to why they were fighting. They should have been at their homes with their families. All kids like him never returned from battle.

Inhaling deeply, the general concentrated on the situation at hand. Never in his life had he needed more of himself than he could give. To falter in his purpose would cost him the lives of thousands.

"Tell General Baxter that he must divert his units to the eastern ridge for support," he ordered.

When the messenger had departed, Lukes removed his paw from his sword. With one final, lingering examination of the battlefield, he smoothly marched down from the cliff to the western ridgeline. At the base of the cliff, an audino waited for him.

"Lukes," she said, breaking formality, "are you sure your idea is going to work?"

With a smile that seemed to carry the weight of the world, he laid both of his paws on both of hers. "Eve, it will work."

Tears welled in Eve's eyes. She flipped her palms upward and squeezed Lukes's paws. Lukes returned the gesture twofold. An eternity of silence stretched between them before Lukes finally released Eve's paws.

"Now, you'll have to excuse me. I must attend a long overdue appointment," Lukes whispered.

Leaving Eve alone on the ridge, he ventured to the north, skirting the cliffside. His sword clacked against his side, debilitating his movements. Knowing that he would have no future need for it, he unbuckled it from his waist and tossed it over the edge. As it fell, its finely-honed blade tumbled out of its sheath. The immaculate steel dully glinted as it plunged deep into the earth below.

Lukes resumed his trek. Upon reaching a tunnel on his left, he ducked inside of it and dropped down into an underpass. He would be concealed from the enemy in this passage long enough to reach his destination.

The next few moments of his life would be the most crucial of them all. Perhaps he should not have discarded his sword.

Near the end of the underpass, light shone down from a hole above him. Scaling a small rock wall, he emerged from the hole. A cold breeze rushed past him, chilling him through his fur. He stood atop the hill at one end of the battlefield. On the other side, at the end of the valley, a brown stone fortress loomed from the mountainside. Its once-stoic appearance had been partially reduced to rubble, and cracks had formed all throughout the remainder of its façade.

In the near distance, a small portion of his army peeled off from the main battle and advanced toward the eastern ridge. The messenger had traveled at a remarkable speed to reach that section of the valley so quickly and had a keen eye to be able to spot General Baxter so swiftly. Perhaps he would survive the war after all.

With a final sigh, Lukes stepped away from his vantage point and delved into a copse of trees behind him. Brushing past branches and bushes, he arrived in a small clearing. He strode calmly into the center of it and closed his eyes.

A rustle, barely audible, rang loudly in his ears. In the blink of an eye, lightning sparked from his fur to the origin of the noise. A sharp crack followed, and a fearow tumbled from a tree, its fur smoking where the lightning had struck it.

Immediately, a host of pokémon leapt from the treetops and landed on the edge of the clearing. They growled and screeched at Lukes, prowling around him in circles. Neither side made a move. Lukes still kept his eyes closed.

Suddenly, a figure sprang out from the top of a thick, sturdy oak. A black cloak completely obscured his physique, save for the claws that protruded from the sleeves. Soundlessly, the figure landed in front of Lukes.

 **"** **This is the moment where the great champion Lukes finally is vanquished,"** the figure uttered. His tenor voice, ringing with a twisted echo, made the very air quiver.

Lukes's eyes remained closed. A low vibration hummed in the air—a growl from the figure—, and his claws ignited in fierce orange flames. He raised his incendiary claws and advanced toward the general.

The corners of Lukes's mouth tilted upward knowingly. "You should have watched your feet more than the sky, Shroud," he reprimanded.

Shroud halted in confusion, his claws lowering slightly. Lukes's eyes snapped open, and his tail slammed into the ground. The orb at the end of it glowed, and complex runes appeared on the ground. A white light began to pour from them, blasting away the surrounding pokémon except for Lukes and Shroud.

Shroud exclaimed in surprise, spinning to examine the network of runes around him. The humming sound resumed, much angrier in tone.

 **"** **What have you done?!"** he roared. The flames on his claws extinguished.

"I have done what is necessary," Lukes replied.

A high-pitched, continuous whistle sounded softly in the air. Shroud roared again and leapt at Lukes. In the instant before the attack connected, Lukes reached up with his arms and grabbed Shroud's own. Deadlocked, the two pushed against each other, one desperate, one resolute.

 **"** **You're a fool,"** Shroud said, shoving Lukes back a step. **"This spell will kill you!"**

"A price worth paying," Lukes replied, pushing Shroud back two steps. His composure had yet to be broken. Any lingering doubts of his had vanished.

Like creeping vines, tendrils of light snaked out of the ground and around the combatant's ankles. As they continued to struggle, the light crawled higher up their bodies, its rate increasing with every passing second.

Shroud's rage only continued to mount higher. **"This spell will not last forever, Lukes. You are only delaying the inevitable."**

The light had now reached Lukes's chin. Light glowed from under Shroud's cowl, and Lukes turned his face away from the horrid sight that greeted him.

"I know. It was never really my place, anyway," he said back.

The light encased them fully. An unearthly wail of agony rocked the air, painfully assailing Lukes's eardrums. Though he felt the same agony, not a single sound escaped his lips. The only indicator of his emotions was the single tear that rolled down his cheek.

With a flash, the two pokémon dissipated into a twin balls of light. They hovered in the air for a moment; then, they burst into a flurry of glowing orbs and slammed into the ground. A new rune appeared in the center of the network, and the surrounding area was enveloped in an explosion of heat and light. When the light died, not a single living thing remained on the mountaintop.

* * *

Many years passed. Young saplings sprouted from the ashes and matured into majestic oaks and towering conifers. Pokémon scampered amidst the undergrowth and fluttered from tree to tree. A gentle, yet cool breeze wafted through the now-ancient forest, lightly stirring the budding branches. Spring has almost arrived, and life had begun to arouse in prospect of it.

Nature had eradicated all signs of that debacle of so long ago, yet it had failed to eradicate the ancient scorch marks of those forsaken runes. No creature had dared to set a foot on them, and flying pokémon purposefully adjusted their courses to avoid passing over them.

One zigzagoon tiptoed close to those taboo brands. Its nose twitched as it sniffed the air around them. Suddenly, a cold, winter wind blew through the area, alarming the zigzagoon. It scampered off in fear.

The wind only grew stronger. As it raged through the trees, the earth tremored. For a second, the runes seemed to glow. Then, all felt silent.

* * *

 _Aewynessa presents..._

~ The Divine Chronicles ~

 **THE LAST HEIR**


	2. Chapter 1: The Last Day

**\- Chapter One: The Last Day -**

Blood rushed through my veins. Sweat glistened on my nose. Exhaustion seared my muscles. This was it: the peak of the battle.

I narrowed my focus to the pokémon in front of me. As a combusken, he had natural agility and strength. His movements were flawlessly smooth. He deftly flowed around my attacks, striking at my vulnerabilities quickly before darting out of range. Sweat dripped into my eyes. My body groaned as it tried to match my opponent's pace, but another kick sent me flying.

Slowly, I pushed myself to my feet. I shook my head, vainly trying to clear it of the approaching fog. I gathered my energy within my body and felt it push at the surface of my skin. With a valiant cry, I charged, white energy forming in a cone around me.

My opponent stood in the center of the field as I drew closer. Just before my attack connected, he pivoted on his right foot and swung around with his left. His foot slammed into my unprotected back, sending me face-down into the dirt.

Soil seeped into my mouth, and I laid prone on the ground for a split second. Recovering quickly, I charged a different kind of energy into my paws and dug into the ground. In the space of a second, I was gone, leaving a hole in my place.

Down below the surface, I dug a small maze of tunnels to confuse my opponent. The darkness pressed on me, but I ignored the feeling. Sensing no movement on the surface, I surged upward and broke apart the ground. I saw that I had emerged behind my opponent, and excitement welled up within me. Finally, I might have a chance of emerging victorious.

Energy gathered into the front of my mouth, manifesting in a ball of shadows. When it fully charged, I shot it down, momentarily slowing my descent with the kickback. The condensed shadows flew at an incredible speed and exploded when it smashed into my target. Dust clouds expanded from the point of impact and covered the field in their radius.

I clumsily landed on four paws, then almost fell over. The fight had taken ample amounts of energy out of me. My legs shook with fatigue, and my lungs wheezed from dust inhalation.

 _Did I really do it?_ I though, peering through the dust for any sign of my opponent. _Did I finally beat him? After all this ti—_

 _Whumph!_

My breath rushed out of my lungs, and I soared over the ground. I landed roughly and rolled for several feet before stopping. I tried to move, but my body wouldn't respond; it was too tired.

In my downed state, I heard footsteps stride over to me. A foot crushed into my abdomen, and a glowing, fiery fist entered my vision.

I looked up to see hardened eyes stare down at me. My opponent pulled back his hand. I closed my eyes in dreaded expectance.

"Enough!" a voice called. The heat faded from my face, and the pressure on my stomach lifted. I opened my eyes to see my opponent offering a hand. I turned my body to push my scruff closer to his hand. He grabbed it and pulled me to my paws.

I nodded, appearing thankful on the outside. On the inside, I was in turmoil. I had let my guard down for a second, thinking the battle was over, and he took advantage of my moment of weakness to finish me.

 _No matter the situation, somehow, he finds a way to pull through,_ I mused. _Always has._

From the far end of the field, a machamp was clapping. The machamp called out, "What an excellent fight, you two! Mona, you made an excellent move with your Dig. Kyle, congratulations for dodging that Shadow Ball! Truly, what a wonderful fight!"

I sighed in defeat. No matter what the instructor said, the truth was still obvious. I was outmatched against Kyle. His talons moved like the wind, and his tan-feathered arms held more strength than they showed. Not only that, but I barely rose above his knees.

The instructor must have noticed my frustration because he walked over to me and put a hand on my shoulder. He kneeled, but, to my chagrin, he still had to look down.

"Don't be hard on yourself, Mona. You fought excellently for having a type and height disadvantage." At his last two words, I heard a couple of snickers at the sidelines of the field.

Ignoring the sounds, he continued, "Go get some water. A workout like that deserves a little refreshment."

I hung my head. "Yes, Mr. Horace," I responded, a similar response to another of his carbon-copy speeches.

My feet dragged the ground, though not completely from exhaustion. As I passed the crowd on the sidelines, a couple of my classmates jostled me roughly. I snarled, but they just laughed in response. My snarls were high-pitched and sounded like a kit. Not exactly threatening, especially with my one-foot stature.

"Great job, as per usual," someone said on my right. I snapped my head toward the pokémon, immediately recognizing his voice. Zane, a luxio, glared down at me. I snarled at him, and he responded in kind.

 _I'd love to see you go out and fight Kyle like you did a week ago. I'm sure you'd be whistling a different tune,_ I thought irritatedly.

"Mona," someone said softly to my left. Turning my head, I smiled when I saw a familiar breloom peeking her head over the back of another student.

"Eris! I didn't see you this morning. When did you get here?" I asked, my mood lifting.

"I, um, got here right before class started. Uh… I didn't miss anything, did I…?" she asked. She followed me over the pond, which lay next to the training field.

"If you don't count Rylie tripping over flat ground, then no, you didn't miss anything," I responded. Reaching the pond, I lowered my head to the clear surface. I paused when I saw my reflection. The face of an eevee stared back at me, its fur matted from the morning workout it had endured. In respect the entire pond, it seemed small and insignificant. Huffing, I thrust my muzzle into the reflection and greedily gulped down refreshing mouthfuls of water.

A clashing sound reverberated from the training field. I heard a few pokémon shout excitedly.

"Want to head back over?" Eris asked me.

"Yeah, sure," I said after I pulled myself back from the water. When we walked over to the side of the crowd and saw who was now fighting, my interest piqued. Kyle was back in the center again, and he was facing a much worthier opponent: Blade, a bisharp. Steel hands clashed with feathered ones, and fleet talons were matched with iron boots.

In a brief pause between attacks, a set of translucent swords spun around Blade. His strength vastly increased, Blade charged a bright white energy in the blades on his forearms. He swung his blades rapidly at Kyle, driving the combusken backward. As Blade sliced in a wide arc, Kyle ducked under the blow and back flipped out of range. In the few seconds he had before the next attack, his body glowed orange.

Blade jumped close to Kyle and cleaved his glowing white blades downwards. Kyle leaned to side, taking a glancing hit, and retaliated with a super effective Fire Punch. Kyle had taken a hard hit but had dished out a much more painful one.

Blade shuffled back from the force of the blow, hissing. I nodded in admiration. _What a quick use of Bulk Up. Still, I'm not surprised that he managed to pull off the maneuver_ , I thought.

With his increased strength, Kyle leapt high into the high air. He pulled his right leg back until his knee was protruding. A white-orange glow encased the knee.

Blade moved his eyes skyward and squinted, trying to spot Kyle through the glaring sun at Kyle's back. The Sword Blade Pokémon only had time to swing up both blades before Kyle's knee rammed into his chest.

The resulting dust cloud remained for several seconds. As the dirt settled, I could barely discern two shadows. Both were upright. The finals specks fell to the ground, revealing Kyle and Blade standing off at opposing ends of the field. I waited with baited breath. Neither pokémon moved.

Suddenly, with a soft groan, Blade sank to one knee, then fully to the ground. Kyle finally showed a reaction as well, softly sighing as he uncurled his claws.

Mr. Horace, clapping once more, said, "Magnificent! The victor is Kyle! Despite the shortness of the battle, both of you gave everything you had. I couldn't have asked for anything better."

I watched Kyle stride over to the fallen bisharp and extend the same claw he did to me. However, Blade slapped it away with thinly veiled anger. "I don't need pity from you," he spat.

Staggering to his feet, Blade turned his back to Kyle and sauntered to the water pond. Even from my distance, I could feel palpable waves of anger rolling off of him.

 _Blade has never lost that badly before. He must be having an off-day,_ I thought. _I'd hate to be the one to cross his path today._

"That will be all for this class. Remember, your finals start tomorrow, so don't blow all of your energy today," Mr. Horace said, noticing that the class hourglass, which, when turned, marked the length of time designated for that class period, had fully drained the sand to the bottom and was radiating a bright yellow light.

"Finally…it's over," Eris sighed in relief.

"Yeah, the last one ever. I'm actually kind of sad," I said solemnly.

"Heh. I, um, really can't say the same," she said.

Laughing, I said jokingly, "Really? I thought you loved this class."

She laughed softly along with me, shaking her head. Falling into a companionable silence, we slipped behind the rest of the class as they walked back to the school building. On the way, we grabbed our school bags, Eris helping mine onto my shoulders.

For a rather recent structure, the building was dingy. Many planks on the walls had started to split. There were few windows, and the storage bags that held our books were crammed together with hardly a foot in between. The wooden ceiling hung low enough to cause a few of the taller pokémon to bang their heads occasionally. Muddy footprints caked the warped wooden floor.

"Guess I'll see you at lunch," I said, waving a paw good-bye.

"Uh, well, same. See ya," Eris said, waving back.

She shuffled down the hall to my right, heading to her next class, history. Our second and third periods were swapped classes: mine, math, then history; hers, history, then math. Oftentimes, Eris mentioned that she wished we had math together; she always struggled with grasping the more advanced concepts.

My storage bag hung a few paces to my left. Sauntering over to it, I balanced on my hind legs with practiced ease. I lifted the flap of my storage bag with my mouth and bit the wooden casing of my math workbook. Lifting it out of the bag, I dropped it against the wall and reached back in for my history textbook.

My mouth had just clamped down on a corner when I heard a crash behind me. Startled, I turned to face behind me. Blade was lying on the ground, rubbing his bottom. In front of him, Zane stared down at him. His thin tail swished in annoyance, the four-point star at its end twirling.

Blade growled and stood up to his full height. The other pokémon seemed to only grow angry at the move. Jabbing his blade in the quadruped's face, Blade growled, "Get out of my way, or I'll slice—"

He didn't get to finish his sentence. Zane's left foreleg shot out and swept Blade's legs out from under him. Electricity coursed through his black and blue fur, then jumped onto Blade's body. Blade's body instantly froze, and he fell like a tree to the ground. His eyes, somehow free of the paralysis, stared angrily at Zane's own yellow ones.

Zane lowered himself until his eyes were a mere inch from Blade's. He then spoke in a low growl. "Next time, think before you speak. If you know what's good for you, _you'll_ stay out of _my_ way."

Briskly, Zane whirled around and calmly strode down the hall. My glance stole to Blade's prone form. He looked like he wanted to pursue Zane, but his muscles would not respond. I grit my teeth in anger at seeing such a strong-willed pokémon laid low by a dirty move.

When Zane neared me, he stopped. His eyes glinted dangerously, and a low growl formed in the base of his throat. My eyes connected with his. His growl grew slightly louder.

He snapped his left forepaw toward me. Reacting, I took a step backward. Immediately, I cursed myself for making a submissive move. With a smug snort, Zane continued striding down the hallway.

I sighed in relief when he entered his next classroom. Noticing that I had drawn plenty of uncomfortable stares, I shyly ducked my head down and darted into my classroom, which happened to be right behind me.

I waited until I heard feet shuffling again before I sighed, then groaned softly in annoyance. _Why can't I do anything?_ I thought.

Shaking my head, I dragged my slightly sore body to a desk in the front of the classroom, which had had no backing on its seat for a quadruped like me to sit comfortably. As I dropped my bag next to the desk, I glanced around the room.

 _I wonder where she is?_ I thought. _She said she would be able to make it today. I guess her trip took longer than she thought._

Resigning myself to boring review lectures in my next two classes, I sighed and pulled out my math workbook. My Levi-pen, a magical writing utensil capable of receiving the mental commands of all types of pokémon, hovered out of my bag. I scratched open the workbook to the back and began working through the problems that were pre-written on the board.

* * *

 _Even after two classes, she still hasn't shown up?_ I wondered. I sat outside of my history classroom, my lunch box resting against my side.

"Hey, Mona," someone said excitedly. After one final scan of the hallway, I turned toward the direction of the voice. Eris stood on my right, bouncing from heel to heel. In her hands, she held a thin wooden sheet.

"Is that your math test? What did you get?" I asked. Our math teacher, Mrs. Beatrice, had distributed our last math test back to us in class.

"I got a…B!" Eris cheered. She broke into a small dance, waving the test in the air carelessly.

"That's great!" I said with a smile.

"It was, um, all thanks to you. I could hardly understand it until you, uh, h-helped me," she complimented.

"Don't mention it," I said, picking up my lunch box. We started walking to the cafeteria for lunch in a companionable silence. Though Eris's success had brightened my mood, the other students in the hallway soon darkened it. As I strode across the worn wood floor, I could feel eyes upon me. Despite my height, I always attracted stares.

Concentrating my eyes in front of me, I asked Eris, "Have you seen Lucy?"

"Hmm?"

"I said, have you seen Lucy?"

"Oh… No, I haven't… Didn't she, um, say that…she might be late?"

I thought for a minute. "I think so, but still, this is pretty late."

Eris simply shrugged her shoulders. By this time, we had nearly reached the cafeteria. Just before I entered the room and escaped the hallway, I heard whispers on the edge of my hearing.

 _"Hey, look at her."_

 _"Who? That one, low to the ground?"_

 _"Yeah. Isn't she...?"_

 _"That sixth year? Pretty sure."_

 _"Have you ever wondered why she never—"_

I stopped listening right then. I did not want to hear the conversation finish. Not when I already knew the ending.

Nobody saw _me._ They saw a failure.

I drown out the noise of the hallway with the roar of the cafeteria. A long line extended from the lunch line. Appreciating my sudden desire this morning to bring my own lunch, I joyfully skipped to my usual seat at the back of the cafeteria. I nearly dropped my lunch box in surprise when I noticed who waited patiently at the table.

"Lucy!" I mumbled around the handle in my mouth.

A glaceon regally perched on a seat at the end of the table. Her pale blue fur glossed in the sunlight from a nearby window. She had been staring outside at a nearby tree when I had called out to her. Snapping back to reality, she turned toward me.

"Oh, Mona! Eris! So good to see you two," she purred. Her voice, while soft like Eris's voice, rang with a confidence that Eris lacked.

"Same, Lucy…," Eris replied. She placed her lunch box on the table and sat across from Lucy. "How, um, was your trip?"

"It was wonderful. The Westilan Nurse's Association liked my application, and my interview went phenomenally. I had to stay an extra day because they messed up my interview; somehow, it was scheduled a day later than I had asked for. That's why I'm late today," Lucy explained.

"Nice," I said. "So, when do you hear if you got into their college?"

A smile spread across her face. "Actually, I got accepted," she stated proudly.

"Wait, back up. When?" I asked excitedly.

"Just this morning. When my parents and I got back home, we found the acceptance letter in my mailbox," she said. "Here, I brought it to show you guys."

Reaching into her fine leather bag on the seat beside her, she pulled out a neatly folded sheet of parchment with her mouth and gently set it on the table. Delicately, she unfolded the letter.

"That's wonderful," Eris said.

"I can't believe you got accepted so quickly. Don't they take weeks to get back to you?" I asked.

Lucy pulled herself up straighter in her seat. "They must've really loved me," she stated emphatically.

"Sure, Luce," I said with a roll of my eyes. Lucy glared mockingly at me; then, her expression sobered.

"You know, Mona, maybe you should have applied for a college yourself. You're quite intelligent; you could get into Hawthorne," Lucy said. I opened my mouth to reply, but she cut me off, adding, "I know you said you wanted to be an explorer, but you would really fit in well at a college."

Shaking my head, I replied, "I have thought about it, but I really want to become an explorer. Going through Mystery Dungeons…it's unlike anything I've ever experienced."

"You…went in another one again?" Eris mumbled around a mouthful of salad.

"No, Eris. My mom fussed out my dad after he took me inside of the one in Oran Forest. He hasn't taken me into one since then," I said.

"I still can't believe you went into one when you know that it's illegal without an explorer's license," Lucy commented. "I might just take back what I said about you being smart."

I sighed, shaking my head. Technically, my dad had an explorer's license, but he was not sure when, or if, it had expired. Even so, Eris and Lucy could not understand, having not entered a Mystery Dungeon themselves. No thrill brought such a joy to me as journeying through the unknown, a realm of possibilities. Even though I had been with my dad, a fierce, bold feeling of independence had grasped me that day. I could still detect traces of it burning in my soul.

Our conversation fell into a lull, and we dug into our lunches. When I opened my lunch box, a heap of carrots and berries greeted me. In the center of the mix lay a chilan berry poke puff. Smiling at the sight of the dessert, I eagerly scarfed it down before touching the rest of my meal.

Lunch period had nearly ended when the sound of claws clacking on wood drew near us. Dropping my last, half-eaten carrot, I glanced over my shoulder to see who was approaching us. At the sight of them, my joyful mood at Lucy's return utterly soured.

A grovyle and kirlia sauntered to the end of our table. The grovyle laid her arm on the table, the leaves sprouted from her wrists glossing in the afternoon sunlight.

"Hello, Lucy. Good to see you back," she said in a smooth tone.

"Gloria. Grace," Lucy replied, glacing at the grovyle and kirlia in turn.

"What do you want, Gloria?" I asked. My reminiscent mood had crashed into reality. I struggled to keep my dislike for the two girls contained. Our relationship was complicated at best and downright hate-filled at worst.

"We just wanted to invite Lucy to come chat with us for a bit," Grace said. She crossed her arms over her chest and batted her long lashes.

"I'm good. Thanks," Lucy answered simply.

"You sure, Lucy? Eric and all of us really wanted to catch up," Gloria pressed. She leaned a little closer to Lucy.

"No, Gloria, I'm fine," Lucy said, this time a more forceful tone in her voice. Her right ear flicked a little bit sideways.

A scowl formed on Gloria's face. "Well, ain't that a shame. I thought you might say yes, what with it being the last days of school." Snapping her head toward me, she said roughly, "Runt. You never deserved her."

 _Why the nerve—!_ I thought in rage. Nevertheless, I maintained the shreds of my composure, a glare the only hint at my anger that I allowed to slip past my impassive expression.

With a snort, Gloria lifted her arm off the table. She swung her back toward us and coolly strode to a table on the opposite side of the cafeteria. Grace glared at us, her gaze lingering on me the longest, before following Gloria.

"I am so glad that I am no longer friends with them anymore," Lucy muttered. She bit sharply on an apple, the last item in her lunch box.

"Me, too," I agreed, Gloria's age-old taunt ringing in my ears. Exasperatedly, I crunched the last bite of my carrot into microscopic pieces. In this manner, the remaining few minutes of our lunch passed in relative disquiet.

* * *

The last two classes of the day, Language Studies and Exploration and Rescue, passed by in the blink of an eye. Lucy and Eris shared those classes with me. In Exploration and Rescue class, I always enjoyed exploring dungeons with them, even if the dungeons were only Entercard-created, "normal" dungeons.

Entercards functioned as the most far-reaching method of transportation known to date. Using just four of these Entercards and a special relay, one could bend the very ley lines that ran beneath the earth to form Mystery Dungeons that link any two areas in the world. While the technology had first been invented in Kathar, a distant continent to the northeast, dungeon researchers here in Westil had discovered a way to remove all traces of mysteriousness from Mystery Dungeons. Now, people could safely travel long distances in minimal amounts of time, provided they have the poké or the skills to make an Entercard dungeon.

Unfortunately, most of the people here could not afford such luxury. That fact that our exploration class even had a set of Entercards was truly a blessing. Our Exploration and Rescue teacher, Mr. Ace, a serperior, had joined the teaching staff this year. He was supposedly an explorer of decent repute, and he had brought some Entercards to supplement class instruction.

After Exploration and Rescue class, the last one of the day, Lucy split from me and Eris to head home. Her house lay on the east side of the school in the direction of Apple Woods. Eris and I lived to the west, deep inside of Oran Forest.

"So, Eris, are you ready for the finals tomorrow?" I asked Eris as we ambled down the beaten path to our homes. She jumped a little bit, clearly once deep in thought.

"Um…not really. I'm gonna flunk the math final...," she replied. Her tail drooped lower to the ground. She kicked a stray rock abjectly.

"Hey, you're going to do great. You just need to watch your arithmetic," I said, raising my eyebrows hopefully at her.

She shrugged her shoulders. "I guess…"

We soon reached a familiar crossroads. On one corner, a tall post with a single sign pointed to our right. It indicated that the town of Evergreen was only eight tenths of a mile down the road.

"Well, see you tomorrow, Mona," Eris said, waving goodbye. When I waved back, she turned down the road to Evergreen. After she had traveled a fair distance, I resumed my forward travel. The road narrowed into a root-covered path. Bushes and small trees crowded along the edges. Patches of flowers emitted a pleasantly sweet scent, and I lingered for a moment beside a particularly enticing bunch.

Soon, a tiny track peeked out from behind the undergrowth. Had I not frequently traveled down it, I might have missed it for its innocuous appearance. A wooden mailbox, slightly tilted to the side, timidly guarded the path's entrance. The abelias beneath it had spread their petals in full bloom, the result of my mom's hard work.

Turning down the path, I followed it past a plethora of flowers, from gorgeous lilacs to still-budding morning glories. Instead of padding on dirt, my feet landed on carefully arranged stones. I had to retract my claws to keep from scratching them.

A humble abode rose into my view as I reached the end of the path. Dappled sunlight highlighted certain features of the stick-and-mud home: a circular window, a leaf-curtain doorway, and a clay brick chimney. Jogging up to the entrance, I brushed past the curtain and into my home.

The smell of cooking berries wafted in the air. A kitchen wrapped along the left wall, separated from the rest of the house by a low wooden counter. The chimney sat in the kitchen's center, a pan of berries simmering over its flames. Tending the pan was a leafeon; she hummed a merry tune as she tossed a light seasoning over the dish. The roar of the fire in the fireplace sounded muffled and tame as if the lax atmosphere calmed it.

A table resided on the opposite side of the room as the counter. Two curtained-off sections, one smaller than the other, encompassed the back wall. A mat of woven leaves covered the area in front of the curtain. Painted on it were the words, "Home is where the heart is." A little heart was painted below the words.

"Hey, Mom. I'm home," I announced. Stopping her humming, the leafeon glanced over her shoulder and smiled.

"Hey, sweetie. How was school?" she said. She placed the pan on a metal rack above the fire and, using the two vines that had grown from her shoulders, reached for the plates and cups cabinet.

Internally, I winced as the memory of Gloria and Grace visiting me at lunch resurfaced. "Oh, it was great," I said dismissively. "Lucy came back today."

"Oh, really? How's she doing?" Mom inquired. She opened the cabinet and pulled out three plates and three cups. Using one of her vines to set the dishes on the table, she resumed preparing dinner with her other vine.

"Good. She got accepted into Westilan Nurse's Association College," I replied.

"Really? So soon?"

"Yeah, no kidding. She claims that she really impressed them, but…," I said, shrugging my shoulders. As I dropped my bag near the smaller curtained-off room, a rustling came from the larger curtain. Sleepily, an umbreon emerged, the rings on his black body glowing faintly. "Ree? Is someone here?" Dad said, half-asleep.

Mom rolled her eyes. "Yes, Umon. Mona is home."

Dad perked. "Oh, welcome home, Mona," he said. He nodded at me with half-lidded eyes, a tiny grin on his face. I grinned back at him.

The clacking of a spoon on a counter drew my attention back to Mom. She lifted the pan away from the fire and walked with it over to the dining table.

"Umon, could you pour the drinks? I still have some water in the pitcher from this morning's draw," she asked. Without needing to answer, Dad's eyes glowed a bright aqua blue. Energy of the same color formed around the pitcher, which sat at the end of the counter. The pitcher levitated in the air, and one by one, it poured water into the glasses. The energy now encasing the glasses, they floated over to the table and were set gently on its rough wooden surface.

Finishing with dishing up the food, Mom placed the pan on the counter and reclined on one of the cushions that served as our seats. Dad and I joined her at the table. Together, we said a prayer to Arceus over our meal; then, we dug ravenously into the stir-fry. Mom had used a delectable combination of pecha and sitrus berries, sweetened with what I thought was rosemary.

"So, I heard something interesting in the market today," Mom said as we silently ate. "Apparently, a week or so back, a coal mine near the outskirts of Hawthorne blew up."

Dad raised his eyebrows in surprise. "Blew UP? How horrible! Did anyone survive?"

"Not that I heard. The police are still trying to sort through everything."

"Do they think someone purposefully blew it up?" I asked Mom.

"I don't know. It's not exactly easy to blow an entire mine sky-high," she answered dryly.

"You know, that's the second time you've mentioned some sort of incident like this happening in the country," I remarked thoughtfully. I gulped down my last bite and exhaled satisfactorily.

"I know. First the monastery, now this. It worries me," she said, shaking her head. She swallowed her last bit of her dinner as well. "Anyway, I have a surprise for you guys."

"What is it?" Dad asked around a mouthful of sitrus berry.

"Well, it's not technically mine, but earlier today, Mrs. Ilima brought us a cake. She said that she had family visiting and made one extra cake than she needed. She thought that we'd appreciate having it," Mom explained.

"Can we have it now?" I eagerly begged. Mrs. Ilima baked the best cakes out of anyone that I knew, even my mom; although, I never told her that.

"Of course," Mom said. She walked over to the back wall of the kitchen and, sprouting her vines once more, opened a box that had inconspicuously sat in the corner. Inside the box was a decadent pound cake topped with a coba berry.

"Umon, could you take this out for me?" Mom asked. She pulled out a plate from the plates and cups cabinet and set it on the table.

"Sure," he said. An aqua blue glow surrounded the cake, and it floated out of the box. Gliding across the room, it landed squarely on the clean plate. Taking out a knife with her vines, Mom returned to the table and deftly cut three slices from the cake. She had barely finished serving us when Dad and I dug into the cake. We devoured the delicious slices far more quickly than we had our dinner.

"Man, that was good. That was one of the _best_ cakes I've had in my entire life," Dad sighed in satisfaction.

"And my cakes aren't?" Mom said though she had a teasing smile on her face.

"Of course, your cakes are good. They're the _best ever_ ," Dad answered with a grin, drawing out the last two words.

Their happiness infected me, and I could not help but feel cheery. I loved seeing my parents smile. They looked so carefree as if nothing in the world could ever bring them down.

Dropping my plate in our sink, I left them to their banter and strode into my section of the house. Pushing past the curtain, I took in the sight that had welcomed me for the past seventeen years.

A small bed dominated the cramped space. A window opened above the bed's headrest, letting in ample amounts of the late evening light. Small sketches adorned the walls. Some depicted rough copies of a leafeon, an umbreon, and an eevee. Others depicted a Chilan Berry, random Pokémon, and an exploration badge.

My gaze lingered on the image of the exploration badge. Lifting a forepaw, I traced the edge of the badge with a claw, scoring it slightly deeper into the wood. The claw dangled at the edge of the drawing for a brief moment before dropping back to the ground.

Not many in our school had discovered the passion that they wished to pursue after graduation. As for myself, I had known since I was little what I wished to be. Initially, I had been mildly intrigued, but more and more, the reasoning had morphed into a desire to prove myself. If someone like me managed to become an explorer, then maybe, just maybe, I could earn some respect from others.

Plus, I had never forgotten that feeling when my dad had taken me into my first Mystery Dungeon. That experience had been life-changing in more ways than one. It narrowed my focus and honed my drive. Now, at the end of my sixth year, that dream was on the cusp of merging with reality.

Sighing, I jumped onto my bed and loosely curled up. Grabbing a book from under my bed, I immersed myself in my favorite book, _Gilded Tears_ , written by Lucan Lorraine. I did not know what species of Pokémon Lorraine was, but his prowess in writing rivaled that of a psychic type. His fictional works not only possessed a stunning literary quality but also valuable teachings on the most essential lessons and virtues of life. Every time I opened one of his books, I found it immensely difficult to tear myself away. Thus, I remained entranced in its pages until the last rays of daylight faded.

I closed my book and slid it back under my bed, unable to decipher any more text under the closing darkness. I leaned back against my fluffy, homemade pillow. I had been so close to finishing it again, but the sunlight dictated that I must wait another day.

Shifting around, I found a comfortable position. Sleep had almost overtaken me when I heard soft words in the night.

"Is she asleep?" a light voice asked.

"Yes. I saw her curl up not too long ago. She's probably fallen asleep earlier than usual for her finals tomorrow," a heavier voice responded.

"...Umon, is she going to be okay? She hasn't made the choice yet, and she's going to graduate in less than a week. When I was her age, I had already become a leafeon. I know her friend Lucy's evolved into a glaceon," the light voice said worriedly.

"Ree, we have to give her some time. I know that she should have made the choice long ago, but she might be waiting for the right moment. We all can't have our minds set from the very beginning. Some need more time, more deliberation, before they choose. We just have to accept that Mona is taking longer to reach a decision," the heavy voice said back.

"But she can't wait forever. I don't know a single Eon that took this long to make the choice. I don't want to see her grow up with indecision. No eevee should ever be stuck in that position, and I don't want our little Chilan to become that. We need to ask her about it, and soon."

"We shouldn't pressure her. She's been busy studying for the finals, and the last thing she needs from us is doubt about her future. These tests will decide how well she graduates and how many higher-end guilds she can join. She's always dreamed of forming an exploration team. If us pressuring her makes her do poorly on her exams, we would blame ourselves until the day we die. Let's wait for a little while longer."

A small silence ensued. Then, the light voice broke the silence. "I will wait until she graduates. No longer, Umon. She needs to evolve."

The heavy voice sighed. "Alright, dear. After graduation. We'll both talk to her and see if we can convince her to make the choice."

Feet padded from the area of the eating table to the second sectioned-off area of the house. The curtains swished, and the bed creaked. Then, all fell silent.

Despair began to take root in my heart. _Even my parents don't believe in me. They shouldn't, anyway. It's not like I don't want to make the choice. I can't,_ I thought, despair constricting my heart.

My head ducked between my legs, and I struggled to stifle a sob. _I can't physically to do it; I never will._ Unwillingly, tears slid down my cheeks. _I will never be able to evolve._

My chest was heaving, and tears were streaming down my cheeks and dripping onto the bed. They did not stop for a long time; only when they ended did sleep finally overtake me.

* * *

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	3. Chapter 2: Twist of Fate

**\- Chapter Two: Twist of Fate -**

Silence greeted me when I awoke. Outside of my window, the dawn's light filtered faintly through the trees. I breathed in deeply, relishing the fresh morning air. Today had been a day long anticipated. Today, I would take my first finals.

Leaving my bedroom area, I prepared a small breakfast of dry berries for the family. Mom rose before Dad did, as always, and joined me at the table. We said nothing, favoring the sounds of the morning birds over idle conversation. Mom stole glances at me as if she wanted to say something, but she purposefully trained her gaze on the table whenever I tried to make eye contact.

Deciding to keep my eavesdropping a secret, I said, "Mom, I'm going to be back earlier today. The teachers broke up the finals into two days this year. All the math, history, and language studies exams are today, and the battle exam and exploration and rescue exam are tomorrow and the day after. I just wanted to remind you." She already knew the exam schedule, but I wanted to break the ice between us and allow her to speak her mind with some measure of confidence.

Mom smiled at me. "I know that," she said. She then reached a paw across the table and laid it in front of me. "Mona, I've been meaning to say this for a while. Deep inside, I know you are a mature adult. I know you can make the right choices when you need to," she spoke softly.

After a pause, she continued, "I love you very much, and I want to see you strive to achieve what you desire. Sometimes, though, we have to make choices that we don't like or feel like we're not ready for. We don't have the time we think we have, and you can't ponder something for forever. You may never have the chance to do so again. I just...want you to know that."

I met her paw with my own. "Thanks Mom. I'll be sure to remember that."

We held the position for a few seconds longer, then sat back down on the ground. "I better get going. I don't want to be late," I said.

Standing up, I grabbed my platter and dropped it next to the dishes from last night. _I'll have to wash these when I come back home,_ I thought. Shouldering my bag, I exited the leaf curtain entryway as I heard my mom drop her platter in the washbasin.

The path seemed shorter this morning; maybe it came from my slight anxiety or my prevalent need to be early. All the same, I arrived at the intersection where Eris and I had parted yesterday. The breloom appeared a scant few minutes later.

"H-Hi, Mona. Today's gonna be fun, huh?" she greeted.

"Hi. Yeah, no kidding," I greeted back.

Together, we trekked to the school. I attempted to allay Eris's anxiety, but my words did not have much of an effect.

Honestly, I could not say that I was much better. A peaceful night's rest had not cured me of the plaguing doubts in my heart. My parents' voices still rang in my head. They tried to trust in me, to have faith, but they could not wait any longer.

 _How can I tell them?_ I thought desperately. _How should I tell them? Will they believe me, or will they take it as another attempt to stall for time? I don't know what I should do…_

Hanging my head, I trudged onward. I was not even halfway to the school yet.

* * *

I sat outside the school, lounging in the grass field behind the building. My posture was not hunched with anxiety this time. Instead, it spoke of self-confidence and collectedness.

The math, history, and Language Studies exams had gone wonderfully. The difficulty they had surprised me, despite me being an excellent test taker. Despite that, I knew practically all of the material.

Right now, I was waiting in the front of the school for Eris and Lucy. I did not have to wait for long before a familiar glaceon and breloom traipsed out of the school's front entrance. Eris seemed the worse for wear; she barely looked up from the ground to wave at me. On the other paw, Lucy stepped lightly over the ground as if her paws only touched air.

"Mona! How did your tests go?" Lucy asked as she approached me.

"Good. They weren't really that bad. How about yours?" I asked in kind.

"Splendid. I think I aced them," she boasted, lifting her chin a little.

"How did go for you, Eris?" I questioned the breloom. She did not answer immediately, opting to sigh deeply.

"I did terrible," she mumbled. "I bombed math."

"Oh, come now, Eris! I know for a fact that she did well," Lucy interjected, directing her words toward me. "We talked about our answers, and she got many of the same that I did. I'm sure of my answers, so I know that she's going to get a good grade. Most likely a B+?"

"I don't know, Lucy. I…I just think it's not going to be great," Eris said dismissively.

"Well, how did you do on your other tests? I know you did good on history; you love history," I said emphatically, trying to draw the subject away from math.

"Yeah, I guess I did pretty good in history. And language, too, I guess," she added.

"See? Eris, it's not all that bad," Lucy said. She jostled Eris playfully, apparently trying to lighten her mood. Eris gave a soft smile and perked up some.

"I guess so" was her only response.

After a pause, Lucy glanced at the sky and said, "Well, the test took longer than I expected. My parents are expecting me to be home soon to help out with tonight's big corporate dinner. It was nice catching up with you guys."

"Yeah, same, Luce. Good luck tonight," I said. We hugged each other; then, Lucy hugged Eris goodbye, too. Giving a great huff, she strode purposefully to the road, turning east toward Apple Woods.

"I… I still can't believe she got accepted into that nurse's school," Eris said.

"Yeah, but she's Lucy. She's got too much of an ego to not get accepted," I joked.

"Really? You think so?" she asked.

I blinked hard. "I'm just kidding, Eris."

"Oh."

* * *

The next morning, I awoke before dawn. An anxious eagerness took ahold of me. In a short few hours, I would be taking the two most critical finals of my life. My anticipation increasing, I scarfed down my breakfast in the blink of an eye. Hurriedly, I shouldered my bag and flew out the door before my parents had even finished eating their food.

I could barely stand to wait for Eris that morning. When she eventually arrived at the time she usually did, I none-too-subtly goaded her into walking faster to the school. She appeared rather nervous as well, which, given the nature of today's finals, I could understand why she would be.

"I'm…I'm not sure I can do this," Eris said.

I frowned. Eris was never a fantastic fighter. Even after all these years, she could barely work up the courage to throw more than three punches.

"You're good at defense, though," I said, partly in continuation of my thoughts.

"Hmm," she said in a perky tone.

When we arrived at school, a surprisingly large crowd had gathered near the back field. We trotted over to back, seeing Lucy waiting for us there. We had just said hello to each other before a loud voice bellowed over the crowd.

"Good MORNING, students," the person shouted. I flinched, recognizing him to be our announcer, an exploud. I never could remember his name.

"You all managed to arrive on time today," he said. "GOOD! That means MORE to time to WATCH you pummel each other."

He paused for effect, expecting some laughs, but nobody uttered even a snort. I shook my head. _This guy always has a terrible sense of humor._

The exploud awkwardly cleared his throat. "ANYWAY, today, you will be completing your BATTLE and Exploration and Rescue FINALS. SIXTH years, stay here for your battle final. Fourth and fifth years, head to the FRONT of the school."

When the exploud fell silent, teachers along the edges of the crowd herded the fourth and fifth years away from us sixth years. After a while, only my class milled about in the field.

A wave of silence flew over the crowd. Curious, I strained to spot what had caused us to quiet so suddenly. Eventually, in a gap between two tall students, I spied an alakazam standing before us, his hands clasped behind his back.

The alakazam, our school's headmaster, cast his knowing gaze over the crowd, then spoke. "Thank you for giving me your undivided attention. This year, I have decided to give the opening speech. I will not be supervising this final, but as advice from me, give it your all.

"Now, onto the information you've all been expecting. The Battle final for this year will be held in the form of pre-determined matchups. We have watched all of you over the course of your years at this school, and we have determined the two best opponents for you to face for this final. You can find your matchups on the board behind me. You win by incapacitating your opponent."

The headmaster paused for a small breath. "I must apologize for not sharing this information with you earlier. We were still arranging the finer details. We want to see how you perform under sudden pressure, not how you perform after careful planning. Adapt well, and you will dominate. May Arceus be with you." He stared at the crowd for a second longer, then vanished, leaving swirling dust in his wake.

Before the crowd exploded out of control, several teachers immediately directed us to file toward the board in an orderly fashioned. As I shuffled to the board, I gazed at the pokémon around me, the most advanced fighters of the school. I felt out of place, despite being where I should belong.

 _Can I even properly belong here?_ I thought worriedly. _Everyone's already... No. Don't do this again, Mona. You need your confidence now._

From my left, Mr. Horace broke out of the dense crowd. He clapped his two sets of hands for attention, then said in his gravelly voice, "Attention! I need everybody's attention!"

The crowd immediately fell silent. Mr. Horace continued. "Find your arena number and opponent and go to your arena. There is a judge at each arena already, so when both you and your opponent are ready, you may begin. The faster we're done, the faster you get to your second final of the day. Now, move!"

When he finished speaking, the students rushed toward the board. Various pokémon shouted out the names of others and their arenas, beckoning their opponents to the field. After the crowds had mostly cleared, I strode up to the board and scanned it for my name. I found it after a minute of searching, and my insides curled upon seeing my opponents.

My opponents were Harold, a haunter, and Zane.

 _Are you—? Zane? Are you freaking_ kidding _me?_ I thought.

"Well, Mona, I guess we both saw this coming."

Startled out of my train of thought, I turned to my left. Harold floated beside me, his expression bemused.

"I guess so, Harold," I distractedly replied.

"Our arena's over there," he said. He gestured in direction of the far side of the field.

"Alright, let's get going. But just say to say, I'm going to crush you," I said. Being immune to his ghost-type moves and having Shadow Ball, I had the clear advantage.

"We'll see," he said.

As it turned out, there ended up being nothing much _to_ see. Harold and I arrived at our arena and started our fight not soon after. While I had expected him to use his only move that could affect me, Sucker Punch, I soon learned that he could use Sludge Bomb.

However, it seemed that he had only recently acquired the use of that move; his technique was beyond sloppy. Our battle only lasted roughly ten minutes. I knocked him down with Shadow Ball, and the judge called our match when he did not float back into the air.

He was the only opponent that I could truly beat.

"Good match, Harold," I said.

He grumbled incoherently, then, after several moments, slowly levitated off the ground. He floated off of the arena, heading toward the opposite side of the field. Instead of following him, I sat down on the ground. Zane was supposed to come to my arena.

Dread curled in me when I thought about my upcoming match with the luxio. _Who in the name of Arceus decided that I should be matched with him?_ I pondered angrily.

To my dismay, he did not keep me waiting for long. He strode into the arena from the same side that Herold had left it. When he beheld me, a snarl crossed his face.

"Why do I have to waste my time with you? Could the staff not have arranged for me to have a worthier opponent?" he uttered darkly. "No matter. You're a pushover. This'll be done rather quickly."

I grit my teeth in anger. _He thinks he can just push me over? He has another thing coming!_

The judge ordered us to opposite sides of the arena. When we had positioned ourselves as directed, he slashed his leg down, commencing our battle. Zane immediately began to circle toward me. I matched his movements with quick steps of my own.

 _Winning this battle will be difficult. He's got both long-range and short-range attacks, not to mention he outweighs me by a lot and is taller than me by a lot. Plus, I've never beaten him,_ I thought in steadily declining hope.

Zane and I still paced in circles, facing each other in silent concentration. When I stared into Zane's eyes, I glimpsed a large amount of arrogance and coldness. His tail swished, its star-like tip flowing with the wind.

His pace picked up; I followed suit. Sensing the beginning of the true battle, I moved my affinity energy to the edge of my skin. My focus narrowed until I only noticed Zane and his movements. I distinguished a slight change in his gait. I tensed and launched my Swift at the same moment he discharged a beam of electricity from his mouth.

The two attacks collided, and the resulting collision rocketed their energies outwards. Dust soared into the air and obscured my vision. I quickly backed away to leave the cloud. As I just exited the dust, a lightning-coated set of teeth clenched my scruff. Electricity coursed through my fur and into my body, almost making me black out.

The teeth suddenly let go, and a paw slammed into my side. My body sailed through the air and landed roughly on the dirt. As I struggled to stand, another beam of electricity soared to me, slamming into me. Yellow colors consumed my vision.

After painful moments of being electrocuted, the blinding yellow slowly died away. I slumped onto the ground, drained from the electricity flowing through my body. Teeth once again latched onto my scruff and tossed me several feet. My breath flew out of my lungs, leaving me gasping and huddling on the ground.

"This is really pitiful, Mona. You're worse than Eris. At least she ran around a little more than you. Too bad she fell victim to paralysis," Zane said haughtily. He stalked toward me menacingly.

A spark of anger lit in me. _He did what to Eris?_ I thought past my pain, a fury building with me.

Gathering my strength, I shakily stood on one forepaw. My other forepaw followed, then my hind legs pushed the rest of my body off of the ground. Dark energy pooled into my teeth, elongating them into brutal fangs. I leapt at Zane, but my muscles responded clumsily from the beating they had endured from Zane's electric attacks. He easily dodged me and forced me onto the ground with his forepaw.

"Do you submit?" he said.

Furiously, I responded, "No! I will not submit!"

He lightly clicked his tongue against his teeth. "Wrong answer."

A sudden pain exploded on the back of my neck. Jaws grabbed my scruff, picked up my head, and bashed it on the ground.

"I will ask you again," Zane mumbled past my fur. "Do you submit?"

"No! I won't. You won't make me do it."

He pressed down onto my back harder, squeezing the air out of my lungs and constricting my breathing. Another blow smacked into the back of my head. I stifled a groan and tried to roll out from under Zane's paw. He noticed my move and dragged me back under him.

Electricity once again blazed through me. I desperately wanted the pain to end, but for it to end, I would have to submit. _I must...keep fighting. I can't back down…not to him…_

The electricity increased in strength. "I grow impatient. I will be forced to take more drastic measures if you do not yield. I will ask this only one more time. Do you submit?" Zane impatiently posed.

I could not speak; I was in too much pain. My only response was a slight shake of my head. I thought I heard him sigh, but the electricity had begun to dim my hearing.

"I would admire you if I did not hate you. I truly did not want to have to do this," he said, a false regretful tone filling his voice.

Compared to the past treatment I had been receiving, the weak wave of electricity that entered into me felt like a love tap. Thinking he had let me off easy so he could prepare for a final attack, I tried to surge upwards and dart out of his range. However, my muscles would not respond. Then, the meaning of his words clicked in my head.

 _He used Thunder Wave, the same move he used on Blade two days ago!_ I realized in shock. _I can't believe he just used that move on me! I don't care if he said he didn't want to use it originally! He still pulled a dirty trick!_

I heard a shuffle of footsteps behind me. "Judge, I believe the victory is mine."

Silence reigned for several moments. Then, the judge spoke. "This match is over. The victor is Zane."

Having finished, the judge called out for a nurse. Zane gazed at me smugly before walking away. I vainly attempted to shout something to him, anything, but my jaw and tongue barely budged.

After several minutes, the nurse arrived and carried me to a medical tent constructed in the middle of the field. She laid me on a bed of leaves, then retrieved a bowl of some poultice. She force-fed me the medicine, telling me that my paralysis should wear off in a few minutes.

When she moved on to another student, she left my thoughts broiling over my loss to Zane. Despite my tenacity, Zane's fighting prowess had still overpowered me. My defeat only served to remind me of the reality that my fighting ability was pitiful.

"Mona," a voice called from my right. Not able to turn my head, I grunted something that I meant to sound like, "Hey, Eris," but came out more like, "Ehh, Eh-es."

"You…fought Zane, didn't you? He, um, paralyzed me, too," she said.

"Ehhhs," I affirmed.

"Ah," she stated simply.

Minutes passed, and I gradually regained control of my muscles. Once I could shift myself into a sitting position, I sighed and glanced at the field in front of me.

"So, were you able to win your other match?" I asked Eris.

"Um…no. I lost it to Gerry," she said, referring to the floatzel in our class.

"Oh, geez. He's tough," I said. "I fought Harold and beat him. That's really not saying much, though, huh?"

Eris did not reply. I flicked my eyes over the field once more and spotted a crowd around one of the arenas.

"Wanna check that out?" I asked, gesturing to the field in question. After a couple of seconds, she spotted it and nodded. Brushing herself off, she stood and ambled out of the tent. I quickly followed.

Loud cheers and whoops sounded from the crowd as we drew near. Taking a spot at the edge, we peered down the arena to see who the competitors were. Kyle and Blade were fighting at the far end, exchanging a rapid volley of blows and parries.

"Well, isn't this a coincidence," I thought aloud.

As Kyle dodged a wide swipe from Blade, his right leg erupted into flame. Using his momentum, he swung his blazing leg around and struck Blade square in the chest. Blade stumbled backward, his hand flying to his chest. A pained scowl crept over his countenance.

Dropping his hands to his sides, Blade stomped his foot to the ground. A ring of translucent blue swords phased into existence. They rotated around him, then clacked together above his head. As the swords dissolved, their essence flowed into Blade's body.

Noticing Blade's action, Kyle paused as well, and an orange hue surrounded him briefly. He had barely finished his move when Blade roared and slashed at him, Blade's arms glowing a blinding white.

Kyle intercepted Blade's attack with his own. With sheer strength, Blade shoved Kyle into the dirt. Nimbly, Kyle rolled away from the bisharp.

They traded blows once more, Blade clearly having the edge in terms of brute force. Kyle was forced to either dodge or deflect Blade's onslaught.

As this continued, Blade's attacks began to noticeably flag. His slashes morphed into tired swings. His kicks barely reached Kyle's chest. Eventually, he disengaged from Kyle, his breath heaving. His hand raised to his chest once more.

Kyle's eyes narrowed, and before Blade could react, Kyle leapt into the air. He bore down on Blade with his legs burning in a ferocious inferno. The combusken struck the lethargic bisharp in his head, knocking Blade into the dirt.

Blade did not move. His chest, now exposed, displayed Kyle's earlier wound. It flared like dying embers in the open air.

"Blade can no longer continue! The winner is Kyle!" the judge declared. A collective cheer flew from the crowd.

Kyle's gaze roved over the crowd. When it reached me, our eyes connected. He stared at me for a moment; then, he walked away.

* * *

"This is it: our last day," Lucy stated in a dramatic air.

Lucy, Eris, and I milled about the entrance to the school. The rest of our class surrounded us.

I stood a few paces from Lucy and Eris, watching Mr. Ace speak with an ambipom and a blastoise. The ambipom waved her tails in emphatic gestures, and Mr. Ace nodded and spoke occasionally. As they conversed, I noticed that each of them sported black winged badges on their chests. My eyes widened in surprise when I realized that those badges were indicative of a Master Rank exploration team.

 _I knew that Mr. Ace is an explorer, but he's on a Master Rank team?_ I thought. _I wonder why he never told us. I should talk to him about what exploration guilds he recommends._

"Hey, Mona, what are you doing?" Lucy called out to me. Snapped out of my musings, I trotted over to her and Eris.

"Sorry, I was just thinking," I apologized. "What's up?"

"Mr. Ace just, um, slithered up to the top of the steps," Eris explained, pointing to the entrance of the school. I followed her point and nodded when I saw Mr. Ace gazing down at us.

"Students, may I have your attention?" Mr. Ace commanded. Quickly, we quieted.

"Now, your finals are about to begin. I am going to use Entercards to open up the pre-selected dungeons. You will enter in randomly selected teams of nine or ten. My teammates, Maple and Sculle, will assist me in proctoring your exams. I will read out your teams now," he said.

He divided the class into four teams. I waited to be named in the first group; instead, I was named in the last group.

"…Mona, Eris, Pepe, Rou, Lucy, and Zane," Mr. Ace finished. "Those are your teams. Please assemble into your groups.

"Ugh, not Zane," I groaned.

"I agree," Lucy hissed.

"At least we're together," Eris said optimistically.

After a few moments of chaos, the class arranged itself into the four groups. When we finished, the ambipom from earlier walked in the middle of our groups, holding four slates of wood.

"Maple will hand out slates to each group. They will dictate the order in which you will take your assessments as well as which assignment you will have," Mr. Ace explicated. He gestured to the ambipom to hand out the slates.

"I'll take it," Zane said brusquely. He already stood at the edge of our group. Maple raised an eyebrow at him and dropped the slate down in front of him. Growling, he pulled the slate close to him.

"We're number four. We have to find three luminous orbs and bring them back undamaged," he read aloud.

" _Great_. We're last. Joy," I grumbled, shaking my head at my luck.

"Then we just wait," Lucy said with a shrug.

"Group one, if you would follow me," Mr. Ace ordered. He slid down the steps and to a clear area near us. Group one trailed after him.

"Your finals begin as soon as you enter the dungeon. I trust that you all know your task?" he inquired. A few heads nodded.

"Good. Now, let us begin."

He lowered himself over a short, rectangular block on the ground. The block contained four identical square depressions. Next to the block laid four cards, each marked with strange symbols.

Using his tail, Mr. Ace set the cards in a particular order and orientation in the slots. As soon as he set the last card in place, raging winds swirled around him. The students nearest to him involuntarily stepped backward.

White light poured from the cards. Concentric yellow rings exploded from the light, settling on the ground and slowly rotating. Yellow streaks of light zoomed above the rings and formed a dome. When all had settled, the cards disappeared into the light.

 _The Magnagate_ , I thought in awe. Its radiant beauty never ceased to amaze me.

"Alright. Let's go," Mr. Ace said. He slinked into the center of the Magnagate, and the students poured into the gate behind him. Maple and Sculle brought up the rear. The rings on the ground dissipated one by one until only the white light remained. With a whoosh, the light enveloped the group, and the entire Magnagate collapsed onto them, transporting them to the "normal" Mystery Dungeon.

I started at the swirl mark that the gate had left in the dirt. My anticipation chipped at my patience; I could barely wait for my group's turn.

"I hope they do okay," Eris said.

Much time passed, and the group eventually returned. While Mr. Ace and his teammates appeared just the same as when he had entered, the students could not say the same. Many were coated in dust, and one student seemed on the verge of passing out.

 _What the heck happened to them?_ I thought.

As Mr. Ace, Maple, and Sculle proctored the next two groups' exams, I could not help but wonder what sort of trials he had set up in the dungeon. Obtaining three luminous orbs was a novice task; how exactly did he make it so difficult?

"Group four, you're up," Mr. Ace said, having returned with group three minutes earlier.

 _Finally!_ I mentally cheered. Tailing Lucy and Eris, we ambled over to the serperior. He roved his eyes over us, then turned his attention to the Entercards. He placed the cards in their slots, opening the Magnagate. I could not help but gasp as it formed right in front of me.

"Get in the gate," Mr. Ace commanded. He slithered away from the Magnagate, allowing us room to enter it. The outermost ring disappeared. Before Mr. Ace could enter the gate, however, he was blasted backwards by a wave of energy.

A collective gasp flew from the two groups. I gaped in shock. _What?! How did the Magnagate do that? I've never seen it do that before!_

To my horror, the gate discharged another powerful wave, sending Mr. Ace, his teammates, and several students flying. Groans came from the fallen pokémon, instilling terror in me. Another ring disappeared from the earth. The yellow color of the gate began to bleed down, and a blood red color filled its place.

I gasped and pressed away from the edge of the gate, anxious to avoid the now-red wisps darting frenziedly around the gate's sides. When the red reached the white light in the center, a boom resounded from the gate, and the final ring vanished.

"Noooo!" I heard a voice shout. I whipped my head around and watched Mr. Ace speed vainly toward the gate. Moments before he could reach us, a white light obscured my vision. I felt my body shift without any conscious movement. An indistinguishable yell faintly reached my ears; then, all sense of matter and motion faded in oblivion.

* * *

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	4. Chapter 3: In the Eleventh Hour

**\- Chapter Three: In the Eleventh Hour -**

When I first opened my eyes, I only saw darkness. Then, various small lights swam into view.

With a moan, I rolled onto my paws and staggered to my feet. Other pokémon near me were groaning, and a few had either managed to sit up or stand like me. I slightly swooned, feeling suddenly light-headed. I grimaced and fell to one knee.

Breathing heavily, I thought, _What happened to us? That Magnagate... Did Mr. Ace set this up? Then, why would he try to save us like he did? Arrgh, my head is starting to ache._

"Well, this isn't good," Lucy exclaimed. Dirt marred her normally spotless fur.

"Oh my Arceus, we are so dead," Eris whispered.

Shaking my head, I scanned the area into which we landed. A large cavern stretched above and to the sides of me. Lumpy grey rock coated all open surfaces. I scraped a paw pad along the floor; the rock felt slightly abrasive. I noted that what I originally thought were normal lights were actually bioluminescent mushrooms. Their yellow color struck me as odd.

After a moment of thought, I realized what had happened to us.

"We're outside of a Mystery Dungeon," I gasped under my breath.

Slowly, I turned my head to the far end of the cavern. A hallway cut into the face of the rock. Strange pillars, composed of a dull white marble, lined the sides as if the hallway led to an ornate palace. Several glowing mushrooms adorned the opening, forming a misshapen arch.

My forepaws shuffled a few inches backwards. _That...That's the entrance to the Mystery dungeon. I remember now. Red Magnagates lead to the entrances of Mystery Dungeons. Why, though? Our Magnagate was yellow, the color that leads to a normal dungeon. Well, until it turned red. How could someone reroute a Magnagate that was already open? That's like trying to pick up and move a mountain! You can't! Then how?!_

"Hey...," Eris said, gesturing to the hallway. "Isn't that place...the entrance to a Mystery Dungeon? It looks just like how Mr. Ace described it to us."

I nodded. Her face paled, and she hugged her thick tail close to her. "This is not good. Not good. We don't know how to handle Mystery Dungeons. We're doomed. Doomed…"

"We are _not_ doomed," Zane seethed. He paced proudly near the dungeon's entrance. "We're better than that." Eris shied away from him as if he had a disease.

Zane moved his attention to the entire group of students. "I am not afraid of this Mystery Dungeon, and I know some of you aren't as well. I will enter this dungeon and escape. For those of you who do not want to linger here for a rescue, I suggest you join me."

He traipsed to the dungeon's entrance, a narrow tunnel marked by rectangular marble monuments. Hesitating to observe the monuments, he huffed and continued forward. As if he had opened a floodgate, other students poured in quickly after him.

"Guys, maybe we should wait. W-we don't know what we're going to find in there," Eris spouted, glancing back and forth between me and Lucy.

"As much as I hate to admit it, we should follow him," I said through my teeth. "The only pokémon who can save us right now are ourselves."

I started tromping after the other students. Eris hastily laid a hand on my shoulder to stop me.

"Mona, are you really sure?" she asked.

"Yes, Eris, I am," I responded. I shrugged her hand off of my shoulder and kept walking.

"We'll be fine, Eris. There is strength in numbers," Lucy reassured Eris. Eris merely lowered her head. Thus, we followed Zane into the Mystery Dungeon.

As the eerily lit darkness encircled us, a loud slamming resounded from behind. Startled, I whirled around and froze. My eyes only met with more black and glowing mushrooms. The opening had vanished.

Despite the current situation, I could not deny the excitement that coursed through my veins. Another Mystery Dungeon—an undiscovered dungeon at that—lay before me. A tension gripped me, anxious to be released.

Eris's hand gripped onto my shoulder, and a whimper came out from her mouth. I rubbed her leg with my head for reassurance. "Hey, we'll be fine. We'll be just fine."

Curious, I studied a pillar. Its white, square design seemed at odds with the pale grey stone behind it. Rapping a paw on its smooth side, I only heard a thump. _I wonder how this formed. It's just so odd,_ I wondered.

I made a move to bat it again. Just before my paw reached it, the pillar vanished, and my paw sailed through empty air. A startled cry came from the back, then another from the front. More pillars were disappearing, and the walls behind them were fading away. Darkness consumed us when the ceiling and floor finally vanished.

Without warning, sheets of rock rippled through the darkness like a current of water washing away grime. At certain places, the rock jutted upwards, then back into the center from higher up. Bioluminescent mushrooms sprouted just behind the wave of new rock, emitting their odd yellow glow.

In the space of seconds, a small room had formed around us with three corridors leading outwards. We occupied the center of the room. Each shuffle and breath echoed loudly off of the rock.

My head thudded painfully, eliciting a wince. _I must've hit my head or something when I landed back there,_ I thought. For some reason, however, a strange foreboding tickled the back of my mind.

"This way," Zane ordered. He moved confidently to the furthest corridor.

"I guess we might as well follow him," a butterfree said.

"Sure we do," a beedrill replied. Nonetheless, he flew after Zane.

While we padded down the corridor, Eris asked me, "So, Mona, um, how exactly do dungeons like this work again?"

I thought for a minute, then replied, "Well, there are feral…" My head panged again, causing me to flinch and suck in a tight breath.

"Are you okay? Is something bothering you?" Eris asked worriedly.

"I think I hit my head when we came here. It just hurts a little. Anyway, as I was saying, there are feral pokémon that roam in here and will attack us on site. We can find items like defense scarves lying on the floor. Like normal dungeons, we have to find the stairs to proceed."

"Hmm," she said.

The throbbing feeling started again, and I tried to breathe steadily and ignore it.

We wound through corridors and rooms, encountering no enemies. Zane, still in the lead, found a scarf lying on the floor and quickly claimed it. He proudly flashed it to us, and I could tell that it was a power band.

 _The lucky bastard,_ I thought.

Turning a corner, I spotted a set of descending gray stairs set into the ground. The other students noticed them as well, for they rushed to the staircase and hurriedly clambered down them. I walked down them at a much more leisurely pace.

Darkness once again consumed my vision. For a brief second, I became weightless. Then, another room formed around me. I shook out my fur and stole a quick glance around me. The other students who arrived before me were already leaving the room.

For a brief moment, irritation flared within me. Here I was, in a Mystery Dungeon that was just begging to be explored, and I was being dragged along by pokémon who wanted nothing more than to kiss this place goodbye.

"I do hope we get out of this place quickly. This is quite nerve-wracking, being in here," Lucy remarked. I strode past her and into the corridor without a second thought.

The next few seconds passed in a blur of motion. Lucy screamed at me to duck. Something landed on my back and shoved me onto the floor. My face dug painfully into the rock, cutting my nose and jarring my teeth. A gravely snarl filled my ears. Hot, smelly breath brushed past my nose.

I struggled, trying to breathe and escape at the same time. A set of jaws clamped onto my stomach and began to shake me. My spine wrenched painfully from the aggressive treatment, causing me to cry out in agony.

After a few seconds, the jaws suddenly released me, and my attacker emitted a sharp whine. I thumped to the ground, groaning. I rolled onto my side and strained my head up.

A mightyena laid on the ground, stunned. Eris stood above him, her fists glowing a bright orange. She then grabbed ahold of the mightyena's fur and flung him into the wall. She punched it rapidly several times before slamming it down. It croaked meekly and vanished into thin air.

For several seconds, I stared at Eris, mystified. Eris huffed aggressively, still glaring at the spot where the mightyena had been. From the manner in which she held herself, I hardly recognized her.

A rush of pawsteps came from behind me, and several students crowded around me and Eris. Several questions about the attacker flew my way. I ignored them and focused on Eris. Almost as if she noticed my glance, she turned my way and walked over to me, her body suddenly hunched and timid.

"I...," she started. The other pokémon stopped interrogating me and stared at her. She gave an odd squeal and quickly backed away.

"Eris, what the heck was that?" I asked her.

"Ummm…?" she stammered. She shuffled away even more, refusing to answer.

"That was freaking awesome," an ampharos commented. "You never said you could fight like that."

"Umm…," she said again.

"Just leave her alone. She clearly doesn't want to talk about it," Lucy said defensively. She positioned herself protectively in front of Eris.

"So? It was still cool," the beedrill from earlier said.

I stood and turned to face the students. "Yeah, and if we don't keep moving, we'll probably get ambushed again," I said.

As if on cue, Zane shouted something from far down the corridor about finding the stairs. The students abandoned us and tromped toward the sound of Zane's voice.

Eris and Lucy approached me, Eris rather cautiously. Running to meet them, I said to Eris, "What in Arceus' name was _that_? Since when could you kick butt like that?"

"Umm," she repeated. She hugged her tail close to her body shyly. "I don't know what you mean."

"Of course you do! Don't mess with me," I exclaimed. "Thanks, though. I would have been chow if it weren't for you."

"Okay…?" she said with a tilt of her head.

"Touching, but we really should be going. I don't fancy being left behind," Lucy interjected.

We jogged to catch up with the group, descending the stairs last. As we landed on the next floor, I stole a glance at Eris. She stood slightly hunched, scanning the area.

 _What was up with her?_ I thought. _She never_ _fought that good in class, and I've never seen her look so_ angry _._

"Eris, are you sure you're okay?" I asked her.

She stared into space for a moment longer, started, and replied, "Yeah, yeah. I'm, um, uh, just fine."

Realizing I would achieve nothing, I said, "Alright then. Let's keep going."

* * *

"Get down!" Zane shouted. He leapt over me, fangs bared and coated in electricity, and crunched the throat of a swoobat. It screeched in pain and fell to the ground. Black marks curled around its neck, and the smoke from the burns was the only indicator of its existence after it vanished.

Spitting out a wad of fur, he said to me, "Useless. How much longer do I have to put up with you?"

Growling, I started to spit out a retort when a paw landed on my shoulder.

"Don't feed his ego, Mona," Lucy said.

Zane huffed. "That's right. Run to your little friend. She knows what's good for you."

As he walked away, I angrily shook off Lucy's paw. "What the heck, Luce? Why'd you force me to take that crap?"

"Because it won't solve anything. He'd just get ever madder at you. He's not worth the effort. People like him just love to make other feels bad, and there's nothing we can do about it," she said.

I sighed, calming. "Yeah, I guess so. Still doesn't make me any less frustrated with him," I said.

"The feeling is mutual," she agreed. "Now, we should keep going. It's been eight floors already. How much longer can this dungeon go on?"

"Dungeons can go on for a long—," I started to answer, then cut off when my headache pounded once more. I inhaled sharply and squinted my eyes shut.

"Mona, are you okay?" Lucy asked.

"Yeah, it's just this headache. It's been getting worse and worse," I answered shakily.

"Do you need to sit down, or...?" she said.

"No, no, I'll be fine," I said dismissively.

"You sure?"

"Yes, I'll be okay, Luce. Let's just get out of here."

Walking along the corridor, the yellow glow of the mushrooms seemed brighter than before. I averted my gaze from them and continue plodding forward.

At last, we reached the stairs, an oasis of hope. "Thank heavens," I breathed. When I climbed down them, I did not land in another square, rocky room. Instead, I landed in an amorphous cavern. On the other side, light streamed through a cleft in the rock.

"We're out!" someone cried.

"Thank Arceus! I'm never going near another Magnagate again," the butterfree from earlier said.

 _But we have no idea where we are,_ I thought. Returning my gaze to the exit, I froze when I spotted a silhouette standing silently there. The edges of the shadow fluttered as it were wearing a cloak. As I started at it, its head slowly turned toward me.

Another wave of pain rocked my skull. I squeezed my eyes shut, and when I opened them, the figure was gone. A horrible premonition washed over me.

 _What the…? Am I going crazy?_ I pondered.

"You know…that dungeon wasn't too bad," Eris praised. "I kind of think that was…fun."

"That was _fun_ to you? More like torture to me," Lucy said.

I cocked my head at Eris. _She thought that was fun? I thought she hated the concept of exploring Mystery Dungeons,_ I wondered. _Not that I'm really complaining._

"There's the exit," the beedrill said, pointing with his stinger toward the light. "Let's get out of here. I'm tired of seeing rock, rock, and more rock."

He buzzed to the exit, but just before he reached it, a thick tail flashed out from the shadows and slammed him backward.

A gravely roar echoed off of the cavern walls. More roars flew from behind us, urging us forward and to the center of the cavern. The roars stopped when we stood roughly in the middle.

Then, pokémon slowly crept from hidden recesses and crevices in the walls. A graveler and two nidorinos emerged to my right, while two gravelers and two nidorinas materialized to my left. With another loud roar, a nidoking and a nidoqueen appeared before the exit, partially blotting out the light. They held their heads held high and glowered at us.

The nidoking leaned forward and bellowed, "Who are you, cretins? What right do you have to trespass onto our territory?!"

Zane stepped forward challengingly. "That's none of your business. Let us pass, you _cretin_. My patience is very low."

The nidoking stomped his feet on the ground and bashed his enormous fists together. "You challenge me in my own territory?! You are an arrogant fool!"

" _You_ are a fool for obstructing my way," Zane spat, drawing close to the nidoking. "Your pitiful pride for this droll cavern is starting to grate on my nerves. I could not care less whose territory this is. Move. Aside."

Instead of stepping out of Zane's way, the nidoking tromped closer and angled his horn towards Zane's eyes. "Not only do you insult me," he snarled, "but you also insult my mate, my family, and my friends!"

He pulled his left fist behind him. "For that, you will pay! Attack, my family!" He swung his fist straight into Zane's face.

Yelling, the gravelers threw barrages of rocks at us. The nidorinas and nidorinos charged at us, swiping left and right with glowing claws.

Without hesitation, I charged ground-type energy in my claws and dug into the earth. I tunneled straight in front of me, eventually reaching where I thought the exit was. When I surfaced, I saw that I had emerged right in front of the cleft. Rays of sun warmed my fur, a welcome change from the chilled darkness of the caves.

I turned towards the exit, deep in thought. _I could leave right now,_ I contemplated. _I could see where we are. I could go get help. We definitely aren't at the school, but I could find someone._

I surveyed cavern. Despite our best efforts, we were losing terribly. The gravelers had begun rolling around the cavern, bulldozing down anyone in their paths. The nidorinas and nidorinos were teaming on helpless students who either had a major type disadvantage or were too weak-willed to fight back. The nidoking and nidoqueen themselves were using Poison Jab and Poison Fang, respectively, to tear through the group. Their ferocious display of power, as well as the unity the nidoking's clan had, awed me.

 _We can't win this fight. We're too disorganized,_ I observed. _I need to go get help. That's our only chance of getting out of this mess._

I faced the outside once more and prepared to kick off, charging my affinity energy in my legs. I had just taken a step when I heard heavy footsteps behind me. A large weight slammed into my back, launching me out of the cavern mouth.

I tumbled to a stop near the edge of a tall cliff. Groaning, I wiped my nose with my paw and pushed myself to my paws.

Looking upward, I saw nidoking lumber toward me, anger scrawled on his face. In the bright light, I noticed a prominent scar tracing from his horn down to the outside of his left eye.

He halted a few yards from me. "You," he growled. "You are a _coward_ , running away from a fight! I shall deal with you myself."

He lunged at me, his paws extended. I barely saw the attack coming. I quickly ducked and rolled under his leap, escaping by a hairsbreadth.

The nidoking landed roughly on all fours where I had stood moments before. "So now, when you are cornered, you fight back? You disgust me," he growled distastefully.

 _I need to get out of here,_ I thought. _This guy's gonna trample me to bits!_

I turned towards a path that led down the cliff. I kicked off into a Quick Attack, trying to distance myself from him as quickly as possible.

"Oh, no, you don't, coward! You will face me!" the nidoking yelled.

He slammed both of his fists into the ground, creating a tidal wave of earth. The wave rapidly traveled down the path and passed under me, throwing me off balance. It suddenly surged upward farther down the path and solidified into a dirt-and-rock wall. I skidded into the newly formed obstruction and landed awkwardly on my left hind leg. I screamed when it twanged painfully.

More tremors came from up the path. I stared up and watched the nidoking advance on me. I could do nothing as he picked me up by the neck and snarled in my face.

"You have nowhere to go now," he snalred. He pulled his open hand back and curled it into a fist. A light purple glow enveloped his fist. I shut my eyes and lowered my head, expecting a harsh blow.

I heard a whoosh; then, I was suddenly falling to the earth. I landed painfully on the ground. Moaning, I opened my eyes. The nidoking laid prone before me, sparkling leaves dancing in the air above him. Shocked, I glanced towards the top of the wall behind me.

There, standing on top of the wall in all his leafy glory, was Mr. Ace. He glared at the nidoking with leaves swirling around his form. He jumped down from the wall and landed next to me as if he did not see me. After scanning the area several times, he called out, "Clear! Let's move!"

From atop the dirt, Maple leapt down next to me. The roar of rushing water sounded behind the dirt, and a beam of water exploded through the mound. Sculle waded through the gap in the dirt.

Mr. Ace lowered his head to me as if noticing me for the first time. "You guys can go help the students in cavern," he said.

"Sure thing," Maple said. She bounded up the path, leaving Sculle to run, albeit much more slowly, after her. The blastoise regarded the nidoking with a passing glance, then continued lumbering after the ambipom.

Mr. Ace watched them vanish into the cavern, then slithered over to me. He leaned down and prodded my injured leg with his nose. I hissed in pain and shrunk back against the wall. He huffed and said, "It's not broken, but it's sprained at the knee. Can you walk?"

I shook my head. "I can't even move it without feeling pain, sir," I responded.

Mr. Ace righted himself. Without warning, he swung his tail around and wrapped me in its embrace. "Then I'll just have to carry you back myself," he said.

I grunted, too winded to make a sarcastic rebuttal. Mr. Ace gathered his body underneath him and surged up and over the wall. The landing jarred my leg, and I had to bite back a whimper.

We both were quiet as he would down the hill, as I had come to realize where I was. It took ten minutes for him to fully descend from the hill and onto a rolling plain. In the distance, I could spy a line of trees.

Feeling brave enough, I broke the silence. "Mr. Ace?" I asked. He glanced back at me in a tacit response. I continued. "How did you manage to find us so quickly?"

After a minute, he said, "I found all of you by tracking your exit point using the Magnagate's swirl mark and the rearranged Entercards. When I reached the hill and saw you come flying from a crevice, Maple, Sculle, and I climbed up to your point. You know the rest."

I blinked in surprise. "You tracked us using only marked dirt and a container of cards? How long did it take you? How long were we gone?"

Mr. Ace sighed. "So many questions. Yes, I did track you using only 'marked dirt and a container of cards'. It took me one hour to locate you and another three to find you since the location I discovered was not overly specific. That means you've been gone four hours and that it's almost evening. To be honest, I'd say that you were lucky. That Mystery dungeon could have been longer and much more dangerous."

I gulped upon hearing his last statement. _It could have been worse? Sure, we didn't encounter hordes of feral pokémon, but the loners were still mean and ruthless. How much more terrible could it have been?_

I had only one question left, and I was almost afraid to ask it. However, my curiosity overtook my caution. I hesitantly asked, "Mr. Ace, why did that Magnagate transport us to a Mystery Dungeon and not a normal dungeon?"

He took in a sharp breath and only said, "I don't know."

* * *

Mr. Ace dropped me off at the school, where a blissey nurse had taken me to the school's medical wing. She laid me on a cot and fed me medicine that looked oran berry paste, yet tasted far too sour.

Eventually, Mr. Ace and his teammates returned with the remainder of the students. Some were able to walk, and some were being carried by the explorers or by other students. The blissey nurse, while having her hands fully, managed to treat us all exceptionally well.

As the blissey finished with caring for the students, she walked up to me, kneeled down, and asked, "Hello, dear. Is there anything else bothering you?"

"Yes, I ha—," I started to say, but then stopped. _I don't have a headache anymore,_ I thought with curiosity. _That's...weird, but in a good way, I guess._

"Sorry, I mean no. I don't have anything else," I corrected.

The blissey smiled. "That's good to hear, honey." She gently stroked my head before standing and grabbing a matchbox off of a nearby counter. She quietly lit candles next to our cots. Performing one last cursory check, she shut the door to our ward.

I relaxed against my cot, staring up at the ceiling. _Why is my headache gone? It was so painful in that Mystery dungeon and in the cavern. Maybe it just faded when I wasn't paying attention to it._

My thoughts turned toward the silhouette that I had seen in the cavern. _Who was that? That pokémon appeared and vanished so suddenly. Maybe I just imagined it. After all, why would any sensible pokémon wear a black cloak? No one else even reacted when it appeared, too._

A strange smell interrupted my thoughts. Raising my head, I sniffed again, and dread filled my chest.

 _Oh no. Oh no, no, no,_ I thought desperately. I noticed an orange glow radiating from underneath the door. _This is bad! We need help!_

A furret woke up beside me, his nose sniffing crazily. He lazily blinked and shook his head. He noticed that I sat wide awake on my cot and moved his gaze to where I was looking. His face donned a crazed expression, and he shook awake the student next to him.

All around me, the class was stirring awake. Pokémon with keen noses began to panic. Several started banging on the walls, while others began shouting for help. I still had not taken my gaze off of the orange glow, which was growing brighter. All of us had faced the same horrifying reality.

The school was on fire.

I threw off my covers and tried to stand. I wobbled slightly but remained on all four paws. Shakily, I took a step forward. My knee twanged, forcing me to stop and clench my teeth. _Arrgh! I can't walk, much less run! How will I make it out if I won't be able to run past the smoke and fire?_

A sound of straining wood groaned above me. I craned my head upward and watched as the wooden ceiling began to cave drastically. A crack formed in the center of the depression, and the ceiling dipped even lower. Several students screamed in terror. A mad rush for the door ensued.

I tried to move, but my knee seared with pain, forcing me into a slow crawl. I strained towards the door while the ceiling dipped lower. _I'm not gonna make it. I can't go faster,_ I thought despairingly. I was only five feet from the door when the ceiling collapsed. Pressure swamped my body, and my eyes closed involuntarily.

 _Whump! Shhh..._

I opened my eyes. I somehow was outside the door, or rather, what was left of it. Rubble had replaced it, completely sealing the room off. _I...I should have been in that, but I'm not. How?_

Then, I realized that my point of view hovered too far off the ground. Confused, I stretched down, but my paws only swung through air. Almost as if it sensed my desire to touch the floor, the pressure that still surrounded me released, setting me lightly onto the ground.

"Hey, um, are you okay? I was behind you and trying to get out when I saw you limping towards the door. I thought you weren't going to make it, so I carried you out," Eris whispered. She leaned over me, inspecting me for any injuries.

I gawked at her. _Carried?! More like hauled! How did she do that in the blink of an eye?!_

Realizing that she was looking for a reply, I shakily said, "Yeah, I didn't think I was going to make it. Thanks a lot."

She smiled briefly and turned towards the glow around the corner. Her tail swished back and forth.

"Hey, um…," I said, still disarmed. "Where's Lucy?"

"She's already heading for the front entrance," Eris replied.

"Good. Now, we need to get the heck out of here, too," I said.

I peeked around the corner to scope out the hallway. The roaring fire had consumed the right side of the hall. Gaping holes exposed burning classrooms, blackening with each passing second. Heat had warped the floors, the walls, and the ceiling, twisting the hallway out of proportion. Smoke clung to ceiling as if it was a cloud in a nightmarish sky. I involuntarily coughed when smoke drifted into my lungs. My eyes watered, clouding my vision.

"Is it...bad?" Eris asked. I looked back over my shoulder and mentally slapped myself.

 _She's a grass type. She's naturally afraid of large fires. What do I say?_

"It's not too bad. We can live if we go now, before it gets worse," I said hesitantly. I heard Eris audibly gulp and briefly quake.

"Just follow me," I said evenly.

 _If only I felt as confident as I looked._

I had just moved toward the flames when a splitting pain seared through my skull. I groaned, pinning my ears back. _Dang it! Not again! Is the smoke affecting me?_

Taking a deep breath, I forged ahead. My knee still hurt, but I pushed past the pain and maintained a steady pace. The smoke seeped deeper and deeper into my lungs with every breath, forcing my body to hack futilely.

At the end of the hallway, the other students shuffled through the inferno. As I watched, a piece of the ceiling collapsed in front of them, blocking off the rest of the hallway. Zane, who had narrowly escaped being crushed, dove into a nearby classroom. The students scrambled after him.

In the corner of my eye, something moved. I snapped my head to my left and gasped. A black figure, a cloak draped heavily over it, lingered outside of the cafeteria. I reeled in shock, but after I blinked, it was gone.

 _What is wrong with me?_ I thought worriedly.

"Mona, c'mon!" Eris pressed. After one last glance at the cafeteria, I surged forward.

Dodging raining ash and glowing embers, we ducked into the classroom that the students had entered. Zane, Lucy, and the others were squeezing through a gap in the wood that led to the hallway once more. An ursaring barely fit through the opening. He screamed when a splinter of wood tore his knee.

Biting my tongue, I limped through the gap, emerging into the front hallway. Immediately, I turned toward the front doors, yet I froze when I beheld the pile of debris blocking them.

"No, no, no!" Zane cursed, pacing back and forth. He kicked a loose piece of wood, then hacked miserably. Lucy appeared even worse; she panted heavily and coughed more than breathed the air. Red ringed her puffy eyes.

"What're we going to do?" Eris cried in despair.

Zane stopped pacing. He faced the rubble pile, stretching his mouth wide open. Before I could blink, a blinding lightning bolt streamed from his mouth and struck the pile. My ears numbed, and I sailed backward.

When I came to, the debris pile was scattered all over the place. Open air poured through the remains of the doors. Zane laid immobile on the ground, a thin line of blood tricking from a wound on his head.

Lucy sat right in front of me, her paws shaking me roughly. My head pounded loudly.

"O…a…," she said, her words garbled by my shot hearing. Upon my lack of a response, she grabbed my scruff and pulled me to my paws. She dragged me to the doorway. We had just made it out the door when a horrible sense of premonition washed over me.

Lucy's grip on me suddenly vanished. I whirled about and stiffened in shock. The black figure stood before me. In his right claw, he held Lucy.

"Let go of me!" she screamed, thrashing wildly.

"Lu-Lucy…," I breathed. I slowly trod backward. Fear coursed wildly in my veins. It constricted my breathing and made my heart labor to beat.

"Mona! Help me!" Lucy begged. Desperation abounded in her eyes.

Ominously, the figure's left arm rose upward. A gruesome, violet-clawed hand extended from the large sleeve, pointing at us condescendingly. A cold wind began to blow, stirring my fur and chilling my bones.

 **"This is only the beginning,"** the figure rasped. Its deep, echoing voice amplified the feelings of helplessness and terror inside of me.

 **"You are no longer safe. This world is no longer safe."**

A dark aura, much like smoke, encased the hand. He positioned it above Lucy's head.

 **"Your kind is so weak, so pitiful. What an inferior creation you are,"** he uttered.

The claw lunged downwards, and time seemed to slow down. I stared in horror as the pointed claw descended towards her skull.

 _No. NO!_ I thought.

"STOP!" I cried, my sense of self-preservation vanishing. A multitude of Swift stars, more than I had ever managed to conjure, formed around me. They fell in a shimmering shower toward the malevolent being.

The claw reached Lucy's skull before my Swift reached the claw. The attack plunged into Lucy, driving deep into her brain. Blood poured out from the wounded and dripped down her limp visage. Her body twitched once, then went still.

The Swift stars struck his claw and knocked Lucy out of it. Like a rag doll, she tumbled to the ground. The figure uttered a string weird words that sounded like a curse. He wrung his claw, scattering droplets of blood.

Before I knew what was happening, the figure lunged at me and yanked me up by my scruff. I struggled against its hold, desperate to escape. Tears streamed from my eyes at the sight of Lucy's motionless body.

 **"You,"** he said. He sniffed me, and I recoiled from him. **"The fear, the despair… I can taste it."**

The figure cocked its head curiously. **"Yet, I feel something more…,"** he whispered. he lifted his free hand in front of my chest. Veins of dark energy raced from his claw and sunk into my chest painlessly.

"What are you doing to me?" I screamed, vainly kicking at the cowl. The figure only growled and raised his hand high above me. Dark energy surrounded his claw once more. Up close, I could tell that the energy appeared less like smoke and more like writhing, fluid shadows

 **"Let this be a lesson for you to remember in hell: never defy me!"** he roared.

Recoiling, I ducked my head and waited for the inevitable blow. Suddenly, a strong gust of wind blasted my side. Leaves scratched at my fur. My assailant dropped me, caressing his claw.

 **"Grr! Who was that?"** he snarled.

"Over here," someone replied. Mr. Ace stood several feet behind me, leaves dancing in the wind around him. Maple and Sculle stood at his sides.

 **"You,"** the figure said. **"Hahaha! I should have known."**

"Enough theatrics. This ends here," Mr. Ace said. Almost invisibly, he shot in front of me, his tail held aloft and glowing a bright green.

 **"And here you are, accusing me of theatrics,"** the figure mocked. His hooded head shook in condescension. He raised his claws and slammed them toward the ground.

Mr. Ace was quicker. He thrust his tail into the ground moments before the figure. Massive vines surged out of the ground and wrapped around the cloaked being. He growled and tugged vainly at the vegetation binding him, shooting Mr. Ace with a withering glare.

"I have waited too long for this, Shroud," Mr. Ace said. He slunk close to the figure. "You're coming with me."

Shroud laughed raucously. **"Haha! I see that you are as delusional as ever, Ace. Unfortunately for you, I'm not in the mood to become your little prisoner."**

A faint crackling sound tickled my ears. Mr. Ace's eyes widened. "Get down!" he shouted.

He whipped around to me and dove over me. I struggled against him for a moment before a loud explosion flattened us. When I peered around his body, I saw only charred vines scattered over the ground—no Shroud.

"Curse it all," Mr. Ace said. He uncovered me and shook the debris off his back.

"Ace, there's nothing you can do about it now. We have to help these kids," Sculle said. His voice had a peculiar rasp like he was aged far more than he appeared.

Mr. Ace lowered his head for a moment, then stretched himself high into the air. "Students, I know this must be very disconcerting for some of you. We have already alerted the headmaster of the danger here, and your parents will be arriving here shortly. Gather here around me."

We obeyed him, too shocked to do much else.

"Where are Zane and Lucy?" he asked.

I gulped and bit my lip. _Lucy… She's…_ , I thought. My vision blurred, and my cheeks wetted with the tears dripping down them.

"She's…," I croaked, drawing everyone's attention to me. Mr. Ace followed my gaze and spotted Lucy on the steps. He seemed to deflate upon seeing her.

"…I see," he simply said. "And Zane?"

A shake of heads was his reply.

"Not good. Could you go search for him, Sculle?"

Sculle nodded in affirmation. He tottered to the building and aimed the cannons that protruded from his shell at the burning building. Twin blasts of water fired from their maws, drenching a part of the building's exterior. The flames extinguished, he entered the school.

The sound of rushing water echoed from the gaps in the walls. Rivulets trickled from the cracks. A tiny stream flowed around Lucy, framing her in a shining wreath. Unable to contain my emotions any longer, I collapsed onto the ground and sobbed. Even when my parents arrived and tried to console me, I could not find solace in their words, for my grief had consumed me beyond repair.

* * *

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	5. Chapter 4: Past Moves toward Future

**\- Chapter Four: Past Moves toward Future -**

Morning is regarded as glorious, a dawn that heralds the beauty of the day. Its orange and yellow rays should endow the living with peace, with hope, and with awe. Morning should fill the hearts of pokémon with joy.

This morning only filled me with emptiness.

Beams of sunlight splayed across the table and over my platter. My food, an enticing mix of Oran, Pecha, and Persim Berries, laid untouched. Mom sat across from me, her face pensive. Even though it was only yesterday that we had eaten breakfast together, I felt as if several days had passed.

I stared down at my breakfast, my appetite unaroused.

 _Lucy..._

Tears threatened to spill from my eyes, and a shiver of anger traveled down my spine.

Mom finished her food and silently carried her platter to the washbasin. I could sense her staring into the back of my neck as she wedged her plate in between last night's dishes. She walked backed over to me and, seeing my undisturbed breakfast, sighed and took my platter to the washbasin as well.

Eyes drooping, I hung my head lower. My sleep had been fleeting and broken, punctured with flashes of Lucy's death. My body and mind tottered on the brink of sleep, but a loud swish from the leaf curtain awoke me.

"Zane's missing," Dad said.

I slightly opened my eyes in surprise. _Dad's back already?_ I thought in confusion.

I heard Mom quickly stride over to Dad. "Could you not find anything?" she asked.

Dad shook his head. "We knew he wasn't in the school because there was a trail that led to the forest. We lost the tracks early into the forest, and not even our best trackers could detect a scent or paw print. It's odd—"

I drowned out their conversation with my own thoughts. _So, Zane isn't dead,_ I thought, relieved. _He's only missing. Oh, who am I kidding? It's still terrible. He was probably captured by Shroud and might be suffering from some kind of torture. He could be dead for all we know._

"—listening to me?" I jumped when a paw suddenly tapped my shoulder. I looked up from the table and up to Dad. He sighed, then said, "Lucy's funeral is today. Your mother is going to comb your fur. We're leaving in twenty."

I nodded quietly. Pushing away from the table, I lumbered over to my bedroom and returned with my comb. Her vines extending from her shoulders, Mom gently wrapped them around the comb and began working out the tangles in my fur.

Once she had finished, she reached for a storage box next to the kitchen. One of her vines propped open the lid while the other withdrew three black cloaks from the box. As she tied each cloak around us, an uneasiness settled over me. The outfit reminded me so much of Shroud that I had to muster my willpower not to tear it off of me.

"I really am sorry about what happened, sweetie. I wish there was something we could have done," Dad said.

I stared up at him silently. Then, I shuffled over to him, buried my head in his shoulder, and cried.

* * *

"Thank you all for coming here today," a flareon announced. He stood poised before a crowd of pokémon from the town of Evergreen and the Oran Forest.

I sat with Mom and Dad in the front row, Eris and her family next to mine. A pair of black gloves covered Eris's hands, and a black cap had been pulled over her mushroom-like head. A white veil hung lightly from the cap.

She must have sensed me scanning her because she turned her head toward me. A soft smile crept over her face before quickly vanishing. I could not reciprocate the gesture.

Lucy's casket had been decorated with a shower of purple hydrangeas, her favorite flower. A stunning white silk ribbon wrapped around the wooden casket beneath the flowers.

"If I could sum up Lucy in one word, well, I couldn't," the flareon said. "She possessed so many wonderful qualities: beauty, empathy, intelligence, temperance, and discernment. Most of all, she was extraordinarily confident. She moved toward her future with absolute certainty as if she knew where she needed to go and who to be. Her brave lifestyle inspired me in so many ways, and I wish that I could have seen her dreams come to fruition…"

As Lucy's dad finished his eulogy, four pokémon rose and move to Lucy's casket. They hefted it onto their shoulders and marched to a pit that had been recently dug into the earth. With a ceremonial delicateness, they lowered the casket into the pit. One by one, each of us knocked a bit of dirt onto the casket.

When I reached the grave, my paw hesitated over the dirt pile.

 _She should never have died._

The flowers in her casket swayed lightly, the wind somehow reaching down to them. They shimmered like flames as they gently twisted and turned.

My teeth clenched. _I swear, Lucy. I will find a way to make him pay for what he did to you._

My paw swiped at the pile, and a large chunk of dirt fell into the yawning opening in the earth. It landed on the center of the flower pile, abruptly halting the flower's dance. Stepping aside to allow Dad to give his last respects, I trod back to my seat.

After all of the gathered pokémon had finished, the four casket carriers filled in the grave with the remaining amount of soil. Lucy's dad and mom, who was a vaporeon, dropped a bouquet of hydrangeas and roses on her grave. A conkeldurr drove a wooden cross into the ground just behind the flowers.

We remained in silence, honoring Lucy's memory. The wind tousled my fur, carrying with it the cold frost in my heart.

Lucy's dad dismissed us after several minutes had passed. As we filed out of the clearing, the flareon and vaporeon waited vigilantly before her grave. Right before I left, the sound of heartbroken sobbing reached my ears.

* * *

The next day, Mom assisted me in my preparations for the graduation ceremony. Despite the recent events, the headmaster had opted to perform the ceremony anyway.

While Mom fashioned a blue bow around my neck, Dad fished out his own white neck tie from our storage box. His eyes illuminated a bright turquoise, and the tie knotted itself around his neck.

"Your dress shoes?" Mom asked me, presenting a pair of white, clean shoes fitted for my paws.

"…Sure," I said uncaringly. Sighing, Mom helped me into them.

"You look beautiful, sweetheart," she said. "I'm so excited for today. You're finally getting to graduate."

She stared at me expectantly for a reply. I merely gave her a straight smile.

"Let's get going." I strode to the door, my shoes clacking lightly on the wooden floor.

Mom and Dad followed me. Mom's own dress shoes, elegant brown in color, clicked sharply. Dad wore no shoes, but simple white bands wrapped around his ankles. Mom and Dad conversed as we traveled, but I remained in silence.

The sun had barely crested the horizon when we exited the forest; it shone proudly in the sky when we arrived at the school grounds. Now that daylight was illuminating the school, I could observe the full scale of the damage.

The right half of the school had disintegrated, and holes riddled the left half. The school's flat roof had completely collapsed. Rubble piled up where the entrance should have been. If I stared hard enough, I could spy dried blood on the bottom of the pile.

I wrenched my gaze away from the discouraging wreckage and to the assembled families. They were seated around a small, natural rise in the ground, and the headmaster stood on top of the rise. The entire teaching staff spread out behind him, their faces like blank slates.

When my family and a few others trickled into the group, he raised his hands for silence.

"My dear friends and students," he began, "we have gathered here today not only for those of us standing before me but for those who are no longer among us. Even now, students still suffer from critical wounds. One shall not recover at all.

"Before we begin, let us bow our heads in remembrance of Lucy. Let us hold her in our hearts and offer her up to Arceus, and let us also offer up Zane and our efforts to locate him."

Utter silence greeted his statement. I felt a tear slip out of my eye and down my cheek.

The headmaster raised his head and continued, "This ceremony is not all for sadness. No, we have come here to celebrate the emergence of our students into the world. They, having surmounted six years of instruction and training, are prepared to accept and overcome whatever trials the world has to offer them. After enduring so much, they have truly earned this graduation.

"I must first congratulate the parents of these students. Seven years ago, a group of pokémon gathered together with a common goal in mind: better preparing their children to succeed in the world. Using their combined knowledge and strength, they constructed a small school to properly educate their children over the span of a year. At that point in time, they only had two years of instruction planned for them.

"Our success attracted the attention of other scholarly pokémon, and they offered to instruct our children beyond the two-year plan. Another two years were added, then two more years were included. Our school now taught a wide curriculum spanning six years, overflowing with valuable learning.

"The moment that our school shone brightest was when we were finally accredited as a proper place of learning. Our courses became the equivalent of becoming an apprentice at any guild, a page at any business, or any similar position in our society. We became a truly mighty school.

"Yesterday, this great school seemed to be on the verge of ending. We felt hopeless, doubtful, and lost. Our precious students, the ones for which this whole effort was for, were endangered at the hands of one person. We were questioning ourselves. If it took only one pokémon to tear down all that we had accomplished, then what was the worth of continuing?

"Here we stand, in defiance of that question. We may not have conquered the fear that we experienced yesterday, but we still stand in opposition of it. Our proud school has crumbled into ashes and rubble, yet its true heart lies within each one of us. Through our determination and vision, we will rebuild the school even better than before.

"Though I speak of the future, this moment is for the present. Students, you are the first generation to progress through the entirety of the curriculum established for you. You have passed with flying colors through difficult trials that no other will be able to claim for themselves. I can say with confidence that you are all deserving of your diplomas. Congratulations to each and every one of you, and may your futures shine brightly."

A respectful atmosphere hung in the air at the end of his speech. The headmaster bowed his head and stepped off the small rise. A meowstic named Mrs. Celeste peeled away from the line of teachers and stood where the headmaster had moments before.

"Students, when I call your names, come forward to receive your cords and diplomas," Mrs. Celeste said. "Persimia, Kyle, Trevon, Alexia...,"

She went through the names, calling out each student with a moment's pause in between. The named students would walk from one end of the teachers' line to the other, shaking hands or respectfully nodding to them.

"Mona," Mrs. Celeste said.

I rose from my seat and marched proudly to the line of teachers. They each greeted me in turn, Mr. Horace, the Battle class teacher, even clapping me on the back (though he had to bend far down to do it).

At the end of the line, the headmaster looped a silver cord around my neck and presented me a parchment diploma.

"You've done well," he said. Smiling, I grabbed the parchment gingerly with my mouth and carried it back to my seat. Despite myself, excitement gripped me, its hold tightening with each heartbeat.

I passed Kyle on the way back. A black bow was pinned to his neck, and white cuffs circled his claws. Our eyes connected, and he nodded coolly at me.

After all the students had received their diplomas, the headmaster once again addressed us. "Alongside their graduating diplomas, certain students will receive a reserve badge for completing their Exploration and Rescue class at or above a specific grade. This badge certifies that you have completed education equitable to that of a guild apprenticeship, and it can be used to replace any entrance trials to any guild or business that your child seeks membership. Guilds are growing even greater in prominence in Westil, and this badge provides you an edge over the competition."

Again, Mrs. Celeste called forward students. Expected pokémon such as Zane, Kyle, and Blade were called forward; however, I was surprised to hear Eris's name among those listed. As she shuffled past me, she raised her eyebrows and shrugged at me. I simply grinned back.

"Mona." I barely restrained myself from running up to the stage. I should have felt humble that I was even named, yet my eagerness overwhelmed all of my other emotions.

On the stage, Mr. Ace was distributing the reserve badges. At the sight of him, my heart froze. A growl formed deep in my throat that I quickly suppressed.

"Here," he said as I stepped forward. He pinned the silver badge to my chest un-ceremonially. "Congrats."

"Thanks," I said through gritted teeth. _You could have saved her. You were there; why didn't you show up just two minutes earlier?_ I screamed at him inside my head.

Mr. Ace's eyes connected with mine, and I almost thought I saw him recoil slightly. I held his gaze for several moments before breaking off and walking back to my seat.

The headmaster ended the ceremony soon after the reserve badges had been distributed. I proudly touted my reserve badge to Mom and Dad, and they smiled and gave me praising responses. As we chatted, I spotted Mr. Ace at the edge of the crowd.

"I'll be a minute, Dad and Mom. I have to go talk to someone really quickly," I said. I made sure not to look at Mr. Ace when I said this.

Mom looked around for a second. "Oh, okay. Just be quick."

Jogging lightly, I wove between legs and tails until I stood before Mr. Ace. When he beheld me, the serperior's mood seemed to darken.

"Hello, Mona. What is it?" he asked.

I opened my mouth, a slew of questions fighting to come out first. _How do you know Shroud? Why did he attack us? Why didn't you find us earlier than when you did? Are you going to find him and make him pay?_

In the end, what came out was, "Who is Shroud? Why did he even come here?" My voice raised to a much higher volume than intended.

Mr. Ace sighed and looked away. "Mona, I understand that you're upset," he began, "but it's none of your concern."

Anger broiled within me. Normally, I back down when a teacher or adult tells me that I should not worry about something, yet, this time, I could not bite back my words.

"I just lost my best friend— _my best friend_ —to that psychopath," I growled. "I—after all that—all that I—"

I lowered my head, tears building in the corners of my eyes. Mr. Ace sighed again, and I heard him lower himself to my level.

"Mona, look at me," he said. Reluctantly, I lifted my head. His entire posture was wired as if he was on edge. "He is criminal. He will be dealt with. You shouldn't think about him anymore."

At my continued silence, he added, "You want to become an explorer, do you not?"

I nodded.

"Then go to Treasure Town. That place is home to the best explorers' guilds in the all of Westil. Join one of those guilds, and you will become strong enough to stop something like this from ever happening again."

I mulled over his words. _He's hiding something; no doubt about it,_ I thought. _Why else would he change the subject?_

Still, I could not argue against the fact that I should visit Treasure Town. Its reputation for housing the most preeminent guilds in the world attracted international attention. It was often referred to as "The Exploration Capital of the World."

Mr. Ace laid his tail on my shoulder. "Mona, I want you to remember this. An explorer needs confidence, not deference. Are you going to rise above the feelings you have inside of you, or are you going to let them consume you?"

I recoiled from him in shock, his words piercing my core. _Let them…consume me?_ I thought. I gritted my teeth. _Does he really think that I'm that weak?_

Appearing satisfied at my lack of a response, Mr. Ace pulled away from me. "I'll see you around, Mona," he said, then slithered away. I bit my lip as he disappeared into the crowd.

* * *

In the evening, Eris and her family—her mother and father, both breloom—visited our house for a celebratory dinner. Eris's family brought a massive bowl of tomato berry gumbo and a plate of roasted pumpkin seeds and sunflowers seeds as appetizers. My mom prepared the main course: two elegant vegetable-only shepherd's pies, a fruit salad, cornbread with jam, and mashed potatoes. Dad, surprisingly, had brought home a chocolate cake specially ordered from the bakery in Evergreen.

"Wow, Ree, this shepherd's pie is excellent! Could I have your recipe?" Eris's mom said with a laugh.

"I can make a copy of it for you. Although, you'll need some payapa berries to make it work," Mom responded.

"Payapa berries? Where did you get those? I thought the traders didn't bring them this far inland."

"I actually managed to grow them here—"

As my and Eris's parents conversed, Eris leaned over to me and whispered, "Hey, can I talk to you for a moment?"

Curious, I said to our parents, "Uh, may we be excused for a second?"

Mom stopped her explanation and said, "Sure. What for?"

Eris and I exchanged a glance. "I, um, wanted to talk to Mona about something," she answered.

Eris's mom waved a hand. "We don't mind, sweethearts. Just be back before dessert."

I followed Eris outside and around to the back of my house. In the fading sunlight, half of Eris's body was cast in shadow.

"What is it that you wanted to talk about? Spill the beans," I said.

She squirmed her foot in the dirt. "I, um, wanted to…you know, um… I want to be an explorer with you," she said, straining like the effort to speak took more than just moving her mouth and tongue.

My eyebrows raised in surprise. "You…you want to be an explorer…with me?" I stuttered. "I thought you said that you wanted to be an innkeeper."

Her foot scuffled the dirt harder. "Yeah, I know I said that, but yesterday, when we were exploring that dungeon, I felt this…thrill. I know I should have been scared, and I was, but I wasn't at the same time. I just—how I explain it—I just…"

"I get it, Eris. I feel the exact same way," I cut her off. "I'm not trying to shoot you down or anything. I'm really happy. I mean, I'm happy because you want to be explorer with me, not because you're giving up your other dream."

"I'm not 'giving' it up. I…I guess I didn't care that much for it. My dad was an innkeeper, so I thought that I should be one, too…at least, until now," she said, waving her hands in reassurance.

 _She's really serious about this_ , I thought. A giddy smile spread across my face. "We're going to be explorers together, Eris!" I exclaimed.

"I know!" she cheered.

"We've got to tell our parents," I said.

Eris needed no further prompting. She dragged me back into the house and eagerly explained the situation to our parents.

"Eris, I thought you wanted to be an innkeeper," Dad said in direct imitation of my earlier statement.

Eris faltered. "Well, I, um, was thinking about it some, and I just really liked exploring, even though it was scary. I really feel passionate, and I even got a reserve badge and everything, so…"

Mom smiled. "We're not trying to antagonize you. We just want to make sure you know that it's what you really want."

Eris's mom interjected, "She's already talked to us about it. She knows that it's really what she wants, Ree."

"Then I'm okay with it," Mom said. "You, Umon?"

"I guess so," he said. "Exploring is dangerous, but if it's really what you want to do, Eris, then I'm going to support you, too."

Hearing those words really seemed to perk up Eris. "Thank you!" she said, bowing.

"No need to thank us," Mom said with a dismissive gesture.

Spinning toward me, Eris clapped her hands on my shoulders and whirled me around in the air. "We're going to be on an exploration team together, Mona! Hooray!"

"Eris…please…," I groaned. Dizziness swamped me, and my food crawled up to my throat.

"Oh, sorry! Sorry!" she exclaimed, quickly setting me down. Our parents laughed at the scene. The mirth spread to me and Eris until we were all laughing uproariously.

It was the first time I had laughed like that in a long time.

* * *

Eris arrived early the next morning. Her parents having helped her pack the night prior, she had eagerly departed for my house.

"Morning, Mona!" she said as she traipsed into our living room.

"Morning," I called back from my room. I had just finished tucking my favorite book, _Gilded Tears_ , alongside my provisions and canteen.

Eris ducked inside the curtain and peered at my bag. "N-Nice book," she said appreciatively.

"I know, right? It's my favorite," I said with a smile. Closing my bag shut and shouldering it, I added, "Well, we should get going before the sun rises much more."

We exited my bedroom and trotted to the door. "Hold up, Mona," Mom said from her bedroom. Stalling, I turned around to see her and Dad approaching me, a box with a ribbon dangling from Dad's mouth.

"You can't leave without this," Mom said. On cue, Dad dropped the present in front of me.

"What's in it?" I asked. I craned my head from side to side, scanning the box.

"You'll have to open it," Dad said. He spat out a bit of ribbon.

Setting down my bag, I sliced the ribbon with my claws and kicked open the gift box. A mid-sized leather pouch and a brown leather bracelet glinted from the bottom.

"Oh, wow, Mom, Dad, this is awesome," I said. I lifted the bracelet to examine it. Flowers had been etched along the band, and a white opal had been stitched into one side.

"You can tighten or loosen it by pulling those leather ties right there," Dad explained, pointing to the leather tie in the back. "It's designed for quadrupeds."

"This is beautiful," I commended as I slipped on the bracelet. Then, I removed the pouch from the box and loosened the drawstring. A gold shine blinded me briefly; as my vision settled, I gasped.

"How did—How did you guys—," I stuttered. A vast sum of poke filled the pouch to the brim. "20,000…?!"

"22,000," Mom corrected, smiling gently.

"We've been saving it up since you were born," Dad said. "We thought it would pay for college, but now that you're becoming an explorer, you're going to need it for living expenses."

I fought back tears. "This is so wonderful. I can't…Thank you."

Mom and Dad hugged me. "You're going to do us proud, sweetheart," Mom said. She sounded near tears as well.

As we pulled out of our hug, Dad said, "Listen, Mona. I want you to be careful. People will remember what you do, so act like how you want others to see you."

"Alright, Dad."

"You're heading to Treasure Town, right? Stick a little bit from the trade route. Make sure you can still see the signs that will tell you where you need to go," he said.

"We will, Dad. Don't worry," I reassured.

Mom hugged me again. "Oh, Mona, you're all grown up—!"

"Mom, please," I said, squirming in embarrassment. _Eris is still here…!_

She released me. The tears had finally begun tumbling down her cheeks. I turned toward Eris, who was sitting rather awkwardly at our dining room table.

"Let's get going, Eris," I said, gesturing with my head to the front door.

She practically sprung from the table. "Yeah, let's…"

As I pushed past the leaf curtain, I waved goodbye to my parents. Mom waved vigorously back; Dad just rested his tail on Mom's back and smiled. There was an inexplicable emotion lying deep in his eyes.

I faced our driveway, elation carrying my heart far above the trees. _This is it. I'm going to become an explorer_ , I thought. However, I no longer intended to become an explorer merely for myself. A newer, stronger purpose had laid itself out before me. It burned with a passion deep in my soul, and I clung to it with a fever.

I was going to find out who Shroud was and make him pay for what he did to Lucy.

* * *

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	6. Chapter 5: A New Door Opens

**\- Chapter 5: A New Door Opens -**

The ocean: a beautiful, mystical, vast expanse of rippling blue and foaming white. Sunlight danced on the crests of its waves. A gentle, soothing wind tousled my fur and relaxed my sore muscles. We had been traveling for six days, only reaching the ocean earlier today.

"This water is so…amazing! You have to come in, Mona!" Eris shouted. She splashed some water in my direction.

"In a minute, Eris. I want to look at the sunset," I countered. Indeed, the sun just barely kissed the horizon, splaying orange and pink across the evening sky. Sea foam tickled my toes as I waded into the surf. I halted when the water reached my knees; unfortunately, I had strayed too deep into the water. A nasty wave taught me my lesson.

Eris laughed as I spat salt water out of my mouth and snorted it from my nostrils. "I can't help—pteh—that I'm so bloomin' short!" I rebuked Eris's tacit jest. She only laughed harder.

"Anyway—phooh—we need to get to town before dark," I said, mood soured.

"Didn't you want to see the sunset?" Eris said. Clearly, she wanted to stay in the water for a while longer.

"I mean…ugh. Yeah," I said, giving up the argument. Standing at the edge of the surf, I watched the sun dip lower and lower. Eris had come out of the water to watch it with me; although, I had to stay at few feet away because she was dripping wet.

Something struck me about how the oranges and pinks splayed across the sky. I never usually saw this much color in a sunset—only the stray rays that the trees permitted to filter through them. The waves reflected the color so beautifully that the horizon seemed ablaze with fiery hues. When the colors faded, a vague depression settled over me.

"Alright. Let's get going," I said softly.

We traversed the beach, heading south toward the peninsula in which Treasure Town resided. As the last vestige of light faded from the sky and the stars twinkled brightly in the night sky, we crested a rise and simultaneously gasped.

Treasure Town sprawled over the land before us, its sheer size leaving us stricken with awe. To our right, long piers jutted above the surface of the ocean's waters. Low wooden houses extended back from the docks, some appearing to be in the midst of construction. The houses ascended into two and three-story buildings as they drew closer to the town's center. To the far west, a lone bluff rose above the town.

Eris squealed and barreled down the slope. I quickly followed her at a more controlled, though no less frenzied, pace.

We briefly stopped to admire the arching welcome sign—"Welcome to Treasure Town, the Exploration Capital of the World"—then charged into the main thoroughfare.

We had passed into another world. Pokémon swarmed busily around us. Fires of every color imaginable lined the streets; they festively adorned the lofty wooden buildings pressed against the road. The catcalls of shopkeepers rose above the crowd's din, beckoning the curious to view their selective wares.

Each step on the cobblestone road sent a thrill of excitement through me. _This is Treasure Town! It's so much larger than Evergreen!_ I thought.

Eris's demeanor mimicked my own. "This c-cannot be real," she whispered, her anticipation barely contained. We followed the flow of the crowd down the main road. An impromptu mock fight plastered gaping jaws on our faces. Our eyes widened at the vast selection of merchandise in every shop's windows.

"This cannot be real," I echoed.

The crowd carried us against our will. The shops rushed past all too quickly. The sights and sounds of the town blended into vivid blur. Just as the town threatened to consume us, we were ejected into a wide, open plaza.

Breathing heavily, Eris said, "I've heard of this plaza. It's called, uh, Pokémon Square."

Even more pokémon tromped around the square. I noticed that many were bedecked in top-of-the-line hats, bracelets, and necklaces. Those pokémon's gazes bore into me as they walk past. Vainly, I struggle to ignore them, yet I surreptitiously paw my leather bracelet with its measly opal.

Eris suddenly places a hand on her stomach and laughs. "Heh, Mona, I'm starved. Where do… Do you think an inn is close by?"

"We can ask someone," I said. I approached a leavanny, who was busy fixing her long, white scarf.

"Excuse me," I said politely. She started and glared down at me as if shocked that I would be speaking to her.

"What is it?" she said all too quickly.

"Um…" Her attitude easily off-put me. "Where, um, is the nearest inn?"

Her face screwed up, and she pointed down a dim side street without looking at me. "Take the first left, then the first right. It'll be straight ahead," she eked out. As soon as she finished, she tightly wrapped the scarf around her and strode away from me.

A memory of the students at school surfaced. _They're all the same_ , I thought. _They look down on you because you're unevolved. You have to be perfect. Perfect!_

Like all other incidents of its nature, I pushed the conversation and the leavanny to the back of my mind. "Eris, this way," I called, pointing down the alley.

"You sure we should go down there?" she asked. Indeed, deep shadow had entrenched itself in the narrow street. Trash crowded along the sides of the buildings. Dirt and sludge filled in the cracks in the cobblestone.

"Okay, it's not the best," I acknowledged, "but I trust that the leavanny gave us sound directions."

"Maybe we should find another way to get there…," Eris suggested.

"No, we'll be fine. C'mon," I said. Without waiting for her response, I ducked into the alley. Eris tried to rebut me, but her argument died in her throat. She grudgingly followed me.

We turned our first left. I wove around a pair of garbage cans, and another side street, this one a dead end, appeared on my left. I started walking past it when I spotted a trio of dewott standing at the far end. Judging by their postures, they were highly aggravated. I ducked behind one of the garbage cans and craned my ears toward them.

"Mona, what are you doing?" Eris asked.

"Shh!" I responded, then turned my attention back to the dewott.

"You stupid punk. Give us back our stuff!" one dewott said. Between the three of them, a riolu danced back and forth on his paws, his back to the wall. I could barely notice it, but a leather bag dangled from his shoulders.

The riolu growled and curled his paws. "I said, I didn't take your stuff," he said defensively.

"You're really gonna pull that crap with us, kid?" the middle dewott, the tallest of the three, spat. He aimed a kick at the riolu's stomach and knocked him to the ground.

"Just give it up," the third added. His voice had a nasally overtone like it had never been used for any sort of honest pursuit.

The first dewott pulled a scalchop off his hip. "This is gonna get ugly unless you hand us that bag," he said. A blue glow encased the scalchop as he finished his threat.

Sliding back under cover, I pondered the situation before me. _Should I do something? I mean, he could have stolen those guys' stuff. I could be helping a thief._

For some reason, my gut told me I was wrong. Grimacing to myself, I asked Eris, "Hey, you can use Seed Bomb, right?"

Eris cocked her head in confusion. "Yeah, I can. So…um…what?"

"I need you to make one right now and throw it near those dewott."

"What?" she cried a little too loudly.

"Eris, keep it—"

"Hey, who's there?" the third dewott said. Eris covered her mouth in shock. Footsteps approached, tentative in camber.

"Hurry, hurry…!" I urged Eris. She glanced back between me and the dewott, her face steeped in fear.

"Eris!" I shouted, throwing caution to the wind. Startled, a Seed Bomb formed itself in her hands. She glanced down at it in surprise like it had formed of its own bidding.

"What in the name…?" the dewott said. He peeked over the garbage can and recoiled when he saw us. "Who are you—"

Screaming, partly in terror, partly in horror, Eris threw the Seed Bomb at the dewott. It exploded in his face and sent him tumbled into a heap of trash. The garbage cans that had been our cover were blasted away from us.

I wheeled on Eris angrily. "I said throw it _near_ them, not at one of them!" I scolded.

"I'm sorry! I just… I don't know!" Eris whined.

"Hey! You punks! Who the heck do you think you are?!" the tall dewott demanded. He drew both of his scalchops and marched toward us, wicked blue blades extending from his shell-like weapons.

 _Oh my Arceus. What have we done?_ I thought. Without a second thought, I sprinted down the alley, Eris dogging my heels.

"Get back here, you freaking scum!" the dewott leader called. He charged after us, knocking aside garbage bins as if they were paper weights. The light from his blades flickered like waves on the walls around us.

I skittered to the left down a new street, nearly crashing into a wall. We turned another corner, then another, yet the dewott did not let up the chase. As we rounded another corner, two paws shot out and grabbed us.

"Get down," the riolu said. He pulled us against the side of the building into the deepest shadows.

"You? How did you get awa—?"

"Shh," he said, cutting me off. The blue light brightened as the sound of pattering feet neared. Suddenly, like a gust of wind, the riolu flew out from his hiding spot and jabbed deftly at the lead dewott. He tumbled to the ground, his breath knocked out of him.

Before the other two could counterattack, the riolu flipped over the body of the first and axe-kicked the nearest one on the head. Using his backward momentum, he landed on his forepaws, twisted, and swung his leg into the tall dewott's gut.

All of this occurred in the matter of seconds.

 _Holy crap! Who is this guy?!_ I thought.

"Follow me. Those guys won't stay down for long," the riolu said as he faced us. I crept out from behind the corner and gaped at the riolu.

"How the heck did you do that?" I asked in astonishment.

He frowned. "We need to go," he pressed, walking past me. I raised my eyebrows, glanced one last time at the groaning dewott, and followed the riolu.

As soon as I had turned my back, Eris screamed, "Mona! Look out!" I wheeled around just in time to see the tall dewott chucking on of his scalchops at me, the blade still in exist. Hot pain flared in my right shoulder as it sunk into my fur, and my leg gave out under me.

My vision blurring, I barely noticed the riolu charge the dewott and knock him out cold. Someone—Eris, maybe—lifted me up, and the shock of pain from the movement caused me to black out.

* * *

An earthen wall greeted me dismally when I awoke. My shoulder throbbed dully, and when I shifted, bandages chafed against my fur. A wooden bed pressed its splinters into my side. The soft embrace of a blanket warmed me in the cool atmosphere.

Groaning from the shoulder pain, I shifted onto my belly and raised my head. An underground room swam into vision. Reclining on a chair, Eris whittled her fingers. The riolu sat in another chair, a cloth on the table between him and Eris.

"Oh, Mona, you're awake," Eris said. She rushed over to me and looked me over. "You're doing okay?"

"I've been better. My knee injury hurt worse," I said.

"You had a knee injury?" Eris asked, concerned.

"Don't you remember? It was during the—" I started to say, then cut off as painful memories began to surface.

 _Lucy…_

In the middle of my train of thought, a piece of bread landed next to my head. My attention snapped to the riolu, who stood next to a cabinet in the far corner of the room.

"Eat it. You slept past dinner," he explained.

"Oh. Thanks, but I don't want to be imposing," I said, unsure of whether to be grateful or not.

"Just eat it already," he insisted. "I'm not taking it back."

 _Well, okay_ , I thought snarkily. I tentatively bit off the corner of the bread. As it melted delightfully in my mouth, my hunger ignited. I devoured the rest of the heavenly bread in a heartbeat.

"Wow, that was good. Thanks," I said to the riolu. He simply grunted in reply and sat back down in his seat.

"Hey, um, we never did get your, uh, name," Eris said, propping herself on the bed.

"Ray," the riolu responded.

"Nice to meet you, Ray. I'm Mona."

"My n-name's Eris."

Ray glanced to the entrance to the underground room. "That was a really stupid move you pulled. You'd best spend the night here. Those three are going to be hunting for you after that stunt you pulled."

"I-I didn't mean to hit them!" Eris sputtered defensively.

"You really think they're gonna care? All they're thinking is that you're with me, and they think I stole something from them," Ray stated bluntly.

I frowned at Ray. "Well, did you steal something from them?"

Ray crossed his arms. He planted his legs wider and lower his head to stare me straight in the eyes. "No, I did not. An amateur whismur pickpocketed them. The tall one noticed that someone had reached into his bag, and when he turned around, I happened to be standing there, not the whismur."

"That stinks. Thanks for helping me, though. That Razor Shell freaking hurt like the blazes," I said, rolling my shoulder (and subsequently wincing) for emphasis.

"Don't mention it," he said. He rose from the chair toward the cabinet, but as he did so, he knocked a bag that was hanging off the chair's back onto the ground. The latch jostled open, and the contents of the bag spilled out on the floor. Something silver glittered in the heap, but Ray shuffled them back into the bag too quickly for me to tell what it was.

"I'm going to sleep. You take the bed. I'll take the floor," Ray said tightly. He pulled a blanket from another cabinet and laid it out on the floor. Laying with his back to us, he curled up and did not move.

Eris raised her eyes at me. She mouthed, "Wow," at me.

I shook my head in tacit agreement. Figuring that I might as well go to sleep also, I rested my head on my paws and shut my eyes. I felt Eris squirm onto the bed and settle her feet near the back of my head.

 _Yes, Eris, you can sleep next to me_ , I irritably thought. With the candlelight dimly shining through my eyelids, I drifted fast asleep.

I could move around the next day when I woke. Despite our saying that we would be fine walking around by ourselves, Ray insisted on guiding us through town for at least the morning. In his defense, he said that "he didn't want to feel bad if he found out that we'd gotten to pulp within an hour of leaving his place."

He was most certainly reassuring.

Ray lived underground in some back street in the middle of the city. I sensed that his hovel was not supposed to exist, yet he somehow had escaped detection up to this point. After a few quick turns, we emerged onto a street less populated—though no less wide—than the main street on which we had entered yesterday.

"Since you live here, Ray, could you tell us about the guilds here?" I asked him.

"There are only two guilds here. One's the Order of the Arcane, and the other's Ironfist," he responded.

"Wasn't there someplace called Wiggytuff's Guild?" Eris posed.

"That place? It disbanded years ago after the guildmaster kicked the bucket. The city left the old guild as a monument since it was the sole reason Treasure Town was founded," Ray said. As he was explaining, he pointed off to his left. Poking above the buildings was a hill, and pink tent, designed in fashion of a wigglytuff's head, squatted on top of the hill.

After regarding the tent for a brief moment, I asked Ray, "What do you know about the Order of the Arcane and Ironfist?"

"The Order deals with magic stuff. I don't really know what goes on in there. They're super secretive and selective to boot," he said. He hesitated before adding, "Ironfist Guild is the big name around here. You can't be green and expect to get in easily. I'm guessing you want to join them?"

"Yeah, we do," I answered, then pondered what he said. _The Order sounds elitist by his judgment, but Ironfist sounds equally tough. Should we try to apply for both…?_

"Eris, what do you think about them?" I inquired of the breloom. She hummed contemplatively, her arms crossing.

"W-Well, the Order sounds really tough to get into," she said after a while. "I don't know if we'd do well with magic, either."

"Fair. We barely got A's in magic class, and that was supposed to be an easy class. Then again, learning how to manipulation internal type energies outside of a pokémon's natural abilities wasn't exactly easy."

"Ironfist sounds tough, too. We aren't really that experienced," she added.

"Good luck with either of them, especially Ironfist," Ray said. His paw reached up to his neck, where it played with the ruff of yellow fur encasing it like a collar. I sensed the behavior was a nervous tick; did he have something against Ironfist?

"Well, how about we just go see what Ironfist is like and see if we like or not?" I posed to Eris. She bounced her head thoughtfully, then outright nodded in agreement.

"Wait, before we go, I-I w-want to see town," she suddenly spurted. "You know, go see Sharpedo Bluff, the docks, Wigglytuff's Guild…"

"We shouldn't drag Ray around, though," I said. Turning to him, I added, "Well, I mean, you've done a lot already for us, so we don't want to be a burden anymore."

"Today's my day off, so I can show you around. You saved my hide yesterday, so I owe you it," he said.

 _Day off? Owe us?_ I thought confusedly. _I'm pretty sure we owe him after what he did, but whatever._

Withholding my true thoughts, I said, "Are you sure? We can find our way—"

"No, I'm good. I can take you to those places," he interrupted, negating my question. He pivoted on his feet and strode toward the west. "This way to Sharpedo Bluff."

* * *

"Wow, these things are delicious! What are they called again?"

"Mona, they're crepes," Eris said to me. She chewed slowly on her pastry, savoring every chomp.

"I have got to get me more of these," I said appreciatively. Eagerly, I swallowed another bite with barely a chew.

"You guys came all the way out from Evergreen?" Ray asked in clarification. We had been discussing with him how and why we came to Treasure Town to form an exploration team.

"Yep. We heard that the guilds are really good here, which is why we came," I said. "I never expected Treasure Town to be like this. There are so many people— _way_ more than in Evergreen."

"Hmm. Interesting," he commented. He grunted, then stood. "You want to go Ironfist, right?" he said, changing the subject. "I'll take you there."

I hopped off my seat. "Thanks," I said with a smile.

Eris slid off her seat and quickly and planted herself in front of me. "W-Wait, Mona, actually, uh…could we maybe look around the city a little longer?"

I cocked my head at her. "Oh, I thought we were going to the guild. Did you want to see some other things?"

She nodded. "Actually, uh, m-my parents gave me some poké for, uh, s-s-sightseeing for some days, so, uh, yeah. Sorry for n-not telling you…kinda forgot…"

Honestly, I had really desired to apply for the guild today. My paws practically itched to run over there, but at the same time, Eris was giving me this look of pleading. If this really meant that much to her, then I guess I could not say "no."

 _I'm such a softie._

"Okay, Eris. If you want to spend some days sightseeing, we can," I conceded. Eris cleaned the wrappers off the table, and we said good-bye to Ray. He pointed us toward the eastern district, then told us that we might see him around town. I thanked him again for saving us, but he shrugged me off like the gratitude was not warranted. He silently waved before leaving us.

Without Ray as our guide, our trip through the city was much more aimless. Regardless, the days flew by in a flash. Our second day in town brought us all along the eastern district, which seemed to be marketed to travelers and tourists. We almost bought this one figurine that had a head that bobbled when it moved, but my frugality trumped Eris's infatuation.

Each day, we traveled in a counter-clockwise fashion to a new district. In the southern district, we located the street on which Ironfist Guild resided. I nearly turned down it, but Eris pulled me away to a street performance.

We also discovered that more than two guilds resided in Treasure Town. At least four more filled the southern district, each boasting a world-renowned membership within its walls. A certain allure settled over me when viewing those guilds, yet for a reason that was not quite clear to me, I wished to enter Ironfist the most.

The most intriguing part of our touring was the fact that we managed to encounter Ray at some point in the day for each day. The first time had been nothing but a passing greeting. He had been carrying something in a massive gray bag and acted very much in a hurry. The second time, we met him at a sandwich shop. We sat at a table next to his, and we struck up amiable conversation with him.

He asked us about what it was like growing up out in the country. I explained some facts to him, like having to always draw water and almost never having enough imported paper for school. He never really opened up much to us about his life. I tried once, but he shut down so quickly that we immediately moved past the subject.

After he left the shop, Eris said, "He's not that bad."

"He's kind of a prick, though," I added.

"Y-Y-Yeah, but still."

"He's nowhere near Zane."

"Amen to th-that."

Our third day passed by rather uneventfully. Eris's funds were mostly being eaten by the cheap hotel rent, so we elected to do only free attractions. That fizzled down to window-shopping and sitting atop Sharpedo Bluff. Again, we saw Ray toting that gray bag, but instead of a terse greeting, he stopped and chatted with us.

For the fourth day, we had saved the best for last: a day at the beach. From examining a tourists' map, we had learned the northern district was mostly comprised of the docks and lower-income apartments. Beach fun definitely topped watching sailors unload a million boxes of cargo.

We splashed in the water all morning. This time, I had made sure to take off my bracelet before entering the water. The leather had been somewhat ruined from my previous soaking, and I felt terrible that I had done that to my parents' gift. Hopefully it would be better after a while.

Toward the middle of the afternoon, we elected to stroll down the beach to dry off and to enjoy the beautiful weather. Near a tiny point, a protrusion of rocks jetted out over the surface of the ocean, forming a rudimentary dock. Perched on those rocks, fishing rod in paw, was Ray. The same bag that we had seen days prior lay next to him.

Additionally, another bag rested at his feet, the same bag that he had knocked off the chair when he let us stay overnight in his home. The flap had fallen open, and if I squinted, I could discern its contents. Upon doing so, my eyes widened in shock. A reserve badge faintly glinted silver on top of his other belongings.

"Hey, Eris, listen to what I just found."

"What, Mona?" she inquired. She had been bent over the sand, peering at a deep purple fragment of a shellder's discarded shell. Even so, she only had to tilt her head slightly to make level eye contact with me.

"You see Ray over there?" I asked, pointing to the riolu.

She turned her head upward to the rocks. "Oh, wow. H-How many times h-have we seen him?"

"A lot. Anyway, look in his bag. Do you see it?" My eagerness was wearing my patience thin.

"See what?"

"The reserve badge!"

At my remark, she started and glared much more intently at the bag. After a moment, she lightly gasped.

"I know, right?" I said eagerly.

"I guess…? No…?" she mumbled in confusion.

Impatience set in; she was missing my point. "Eris, I've had some thoughts in the back of my head for a while now. You know how Ray's said that getting into the guilds here is tough?"

She nodded after a pause for remembrance.

"Well, I was thinking that we could increase our chances by getting someone else to join our team, but we didn't really know anybody. Now that we know Ray has a badge, we can ask him," I finished.

Instead of mirroring my excitement, Eris appeared rather muted. She licked her dry lips, then said, "I don't know, Mona."

I drew back from her. "I know, we've not known him for long, but you saw the way he talked about those guilds. He really wanted to get into one."

"B-But he hasn't… Maybe he doesn't…really want to?" Eris said, constructing a poor argument. I understood her point that Ray's not yet having joined a guild meant that he might not be interested, but that did not completely rule out the possibility.

"How about we go up and ask him about it?" I suggested.

"A-Are you sure? We might not n-need a new teammate…," Eris countered weakly.

"Maybe we won't, but having him would increase our chances of getting into a guild."

She only shrugged in response. I vaguely sensed that I had perhaps been pushy, but I did not care enough to regard that feeling for more than a second. Leaving her to follow me on her own choosing, I trotted up to the pile of rocks and called out to Ray. He glanced over his shoulder and, upon seeing me, raised a paw in greeting.

Taking that a sign to proceed, I bounded up the rocks and joined him at the end. He glanced at me quizzically but said nothing. For that one awkward moment, hesitation creeped over me. Maybe Eris was right; I should not be asking someone like him so intense a question.

"Funny how we keep meeting up like this, huh?" I asked. His head drifted up and down in a slow, disinterested nod.

At the same time, I had already come all the way up here and intruded into his presence. As if he could read me, Ray lowered his rod and, without looking at me, asked, "You wanted to ask me something?"

I marveled at his intuition, but nevertheless, proceeded, "Yeah, I did. Do you mind me asking?"

"Go right ahead," he said casually. Unlike the times we had met before, he seemed calmer—less tense. Reassured by his openness, I braved on.

"I've been wondering the past few days. I've talked with Eris, and I couldn't help but notice that you have a reserve badge in your bag there," I said.

His paws tightened a little bit on his rod, and his eyes strayed to the bag. "That I do," he said, kicking the bag shut with his foot.

"I didn't mean to pry, I just—," I started to say, then cut myself off. Inhaling, I continued, "We wanted to ask you something."

I hesitated a moment; this was it.

 _Just spill it already!_

"Would you be willing to join our exploration team?"

His paws loosened their grip. Steadily, he lowered his rod down between his knees, and his head dropped with it. His right paw reached upward to twirl his collar fur. I bit my lip at his silence.

 _Crap, I just crossed a line, didn't I? Oh, I should have listened to Eris._

Ray broke the quiet with a deep exhale. I almost thought that he would speak, but he felt into musing once more. Tail twitching of its own accord, I waited with baited breath for his response.

"Hmm. I'm not sure," he said lethargically. Steadily, he began to reel his line back to himself.

"Oh," was all I could say. Truthfully, I should have expected as much, but I had still held out my hope nonetheless.

"I'll take you to whichever guild you want to go, though," he said. "Ironfist, right?"

"Yeah, but you don't have to just because I asked you about joining our future exploration team," I said.

"I have to head in that direction, anyway," he said. Having fully drawn in his line, he stuffed the rod into the large gray bag and hoisted in onto his hip. A sickly-sweet smell wafted from the open top, causing my nose to wrinkle.

 _Fresh catch. Yech_ , I thought.

Picking up his other bag, Ray lead the way down the rocks. I bounded down next to Eris and relayed our talk to her. Despite displaying sympathy, she exuded a subtle hint of vindication. Quelling my perverse irritation, I marched after Ray.

Along the way to Ironfist, Ray dipped into the restaurant where we ate lunch two days ago. He reappeared without the gray bag after a few minutes. In one of the restaurant's windows, a grumpig dressed in a white chef's uniform appeared. He peered at Ray with such an intensity that I wondered if he knew the riolu.

The grumpig must have noticed me staring at him because his gaze shifted over to me. Feeling caught, I ducked my head and jogged after Ray. I could feel the weight of the grumpig's stare on me until the three of us turned down another street.

Ray directed us toward an alleyway, claiming that it was shortcut to the guild. It seemed ill-used, for trash and other nasty somethings crowded the sides of the road. Flattening my nose as much as possible, we waded through the narrow cobblestone street.

As we passed through an intersection, something grabbed my scruff and slung me against a wall. Coughing, I sunk to the ground. My shoulder vibrated painfully.

"What the—?" Ray cried. I heard Eris scream in surprise followed by a loud thumping sound. The pokémon holding me pressed me against the wall, his breath dripping disgustingly into my ears.

"Well, that went much easier than I thought it would go," a familiar voice gloated. A tall dewott, the one from several nights ago, stalked into my peripheral view. His shouldered swelled with a dark blue hue, a remnant of his brawl with Ray.

"You're not so tough when you're all tied up, huh?" the dewott standing over me breathed. He turned my head toward him, and I received a full-frontal of his face. A welt the size of an apple bulged from his lower jaw, and his right eye had squeezed itself shut.

 _You're the one Eris hit. Crap_ , I thought. I always knew what happened in these scenarios: even if you were not the one who hurt the other guy, you got beat up anyway. I had experienced that pain far too often myself.

Puffy Face pulled back his fist and rammed it into my side. I gasped as the air flew out of my lungs. My legs crumpled out from under me.

"Feels good, don't it?" Puffy Face grinned. With half of his jaw swollen shut, his smile appeared more like an ugly grimace. He kicked me in the gut twice for good measure, then held me tightly.

"You again," the tall dewott said to Ray, who was being held by the third dewott. He advanced on the riolu, his gait lowering into a haughty saunter. He squatted in front of Ray, then slapped him on the cheek.

"I'm not in the mood for patience today, scum. I'll give you one last chance: give us back our stuff or else," the dewott demanded. Instead of answering, Ray glanced over the dewott once. My eyes widened when I realized what he was doing: sizing up his opponent. I had seen Kyle do it to me enough times during battle class.

 _He's not seriously going to…?!_ I thought in wonder.

His movements a blur, Ray head-butted the tall dewott. The dewott recoiled, taken by surprise, and stumbled backward. Wasting no time, Ray slammed his head back against the dewott's nose while simultaneously smashing the dewott's foot. He squirmed nimbly out of the loosened hold and squared up into a fighting stance.

"Why you little—!" Puffy Face said. Pushing me face-first onto the cobblestone, he wheeled on Ray. Spitting dust out of my mouth, I hastily formed a Shadow Ball.

He had taken only a few steps forward when my attack hit him square in the back. He staggered off-balance toward Ray, who upper-cut him in the jaw. Unconscious, Puffy Face ungracefully dropped to the ground.

The dewott who once held Ray grabbed the stunned Eris and raised a Razor Shell to her throat. "Stop, or I'll stab her!" he said in a nasally tone. While I froze, Ray darted forward in a blinding Quick Attack and yanked the Razor Shell out of the dewott's hands. He then used the Razor Shell to club the dewott over the head.

By this time, the tall dewott had unsheathed twin Razor Shells and was advancing toward me, the lesser threat. He shouted something incomprehensible before charging at me. I barely scrabbled out of the way in time.

With his back to a wall and his front toward the three of us, the tall dewott tensed. "You really think that the three of you can stop me?" he dared. Twirling his scalchops adroitly, he settled into a defensive stance.

Abruptly, a glowing ball sailed through the air. It exploded in the tall dewott's face; he tumbled to ground, knocked out cold. In amazement, I turned toward Eris, who stared back at me sheepishly. "It worked the last time…," she said defensively.

Ray snorted in amusement. He lowered his guard and regarding us appreciatively. "You handled yourselves pretty well for a sneak attack," he complimented.

I rolled my eyes. "Are you sure we haven't met before?" I commented dryly.

"Pfft," he said with a wave of his hands. "You still nearly got beaten up. Again."

Indignant, I bit my lip and hmphed. He helped Eris to her feet. She thanked him.

I peered down at the unconscious dewott. The afternoon sunlight glanced off on object on the tall one's chest: a deep red explorer's badge.

 _They're part of a guild? Which one?_ I wondered. _If such a guild accepts pokémon like them, I'd hate to know what it's like in general._

Together, we navigated our way, Ray leading us once again, through the back streets until we arrived at a small plaza. On our right, a stone building loomed. An iron bust of a garchomp's head sat over a thick, wrought-iron gate. Beyond the gate laid an interior of shadow.

"That's it: Ironfist Guild," Ray said.

"It's…big," Eris breathed.

"You can say that again," I tacitly agreed. Facing Ray, I continued, "Well, I guess this is it. Thanks for bringing us here."

"No problem," he said. After an awkward pause, he rubbed the back of his head. His mouth flapped like he was trying to say something.

"What is it?" I asked, trying to elicit his thoughts.

"…Nothing," he began. "I'd better lead you in there. You have no idea how to get to the guildmaster, and it's nearly sunset."

"Oh, no! W-We better hurry, then," Eris stammered anxiously.

"You don't have to keep helping us. I'm sure we could find our way around there," I said. _If you don't want to be on our team, then you shouldn't have to stick with us anymore_ , I mentally added. However, he and Eris ventured toward the guild, ignoring my input. Sighing, I followed them.

We marched up to the iron gates barring the entrance. Nervously, I extended a forepaw and rapped it on the gate's metal. Despite my small paw, the knock echoed loudly behind the gates. In response, a boom resounded from above me. Startled, I wildly stared upward and gaped. The garchomp's jaw had lowered, exposing deep darkness. A baritone voice rang from the blackness.

"What business brings you here to Ironfist Guild?"

I answered steadily, surprising myself. "We are here to apply for guild membership."

"Then enter, future comrades."

With another great boom, the garchomp's jaw shut tightly. The iron gates creaked open, then swung apart. A narrow staircase spiraled down from the entrance into the dimly lit gloom.

Eris's hands quivered faintly. Ray had already started walking toward the gate. My own facial features settled into a look of determination.

"Let's go," I said bravely, and we entered the guild, the sound of the closing iron gates echoing ominously around us.

* * *

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	7. Chapter 6: Advent

**\- Chapter 6: Advent -**

A symphony of noise and light ushered us into a grandiose hall. In its center rose a dramatic statue of an explorer's badge. The jewel in the badge's center featured a seven-point star.

Door lined the sides of the walls, and hallways extended back into the building. A post office, busy with late-evening deliveries, sat to my left. To my right was a lobby of sorts, furnished with tables and chairs. Brilliant torches illuminated everything. A crowd of pokémon swarmed about the hall, many toting stacks of papers.

"Welcome to Ironfist Guild," a voice said above me, "and welcome back, Ray." A beheeyem floated down in front of us and bowed. "My name is Walter, and I am the gatekeeper here."

"Nice to meet you, Walter. Why do you sound so different?" I asked. I stored away the knowledge that the gatekeeper knew Ray.

Though his face bore no mouth, I could sense that he was smiling. "That is simply a trick of the trade, Miss Mona," he said. Before I could ask him how he knew my name, he continued, "I am required to perform a surface-level examination of your mind to discern your identity."

The way he stated that so matter-of-factly disturbed me. _He's just allowed to invade my mind? How is that even legal?_ I thought. Back at home, the psychic pokémon in Evergreen were bound by law to not enter into other people's minds. The only reason I knew that they had abided by that rule was because my secret had never been brought to light.

Then, I began to panic. Could Walter see deep enough to discover it? If so, would he tell the guildmaster? A guildmaster would never accept a pokémon that could not evolve. I might be doomed from the get-go.

 _No, no, get it together, Mona. Stop thinking about it!_ I chastised myself. He could have tuned in to all of that just then. I had to watch what I was thinking when I was around him; the consequences were just too risky.

Eris had introduced us while I blanked out. Graciously, Walter pointed out the path to the guildmaster: descend the stairs at the back and go the opposite end of the downstairs hall. After thanking him, he vanished without a trace.

"Some guy," I commented.

Ray grunted. "He's a piece of work. Let's get going."

We soon reached the stairs and began our descent. Fire danced in narrow alcoves on the walls. Smooth stone pressed into the underside of my paws with each step. The gaps between the rough cobblestones on the walls stared at me like empty eye sockets.

As Eris, Ray, and I descended, my thoughts drifted to my journey and life up until this point. _I put so much effort just to reach this point. I fought through six years of academic and physical training. I endured countless embarrassing moments at the hands of Lucy and others. I survived a hostile Mystery Dungeon. I came out in mostly one piece after a semi-feral pokémon attack. I lived through a_ fire _in a_ wooden building _to reach this point. All of my effort leads up to today, right here, right now. I can't fail now. I just can't. Not after all I've been through._

The staircase branched to the left and right. Descending to the right, we reached an iron door inscribed with the seven-point-star explorer's badge. The center of the carving slightly depressed into the wall. When I tried to push it open, the door did not budge.

"What's going on? Why is it not opening?" I asked aloud, slightly panicking. If we could not get inside the guild, then we could not apply for membership. That would mean no exploration team. I started pawing the door's surface for any hidden handles.

"Move aside."

Ray strode up next to me and reached into the bag loosely tied around his waist. Pulling out his tarnished reserve badge, he fitted it into the depression in the door's center. A white light rippled across the doors' surface. The ripples congregated in the center of the reserve badge, then spread into a thin, vertical line. When the edges of the line touched the floor and the upper doorframe, the door split into two and swung inward on undetectable hinges. Ray grabbed his Badge before it hit the floor.

"Here we are: the guild proper," Ray stated blandly. He strutted through the open doors.

The grandeur before us poorly matched Ray's tone. Reaching from floor to ceiling, red granite columns sparkled in the flickering torchlight from the scones on the walls. A high vaulted ceiling glittered with flecks of quartz and clear crystal. Smooth black stone comprised the floor. Despite being encased like in a tomb, a pleasant warmth pervaded the atmosphere.

I started to follow Ray, but I noticed that I did not hear Eris's footsteps behind me. I turned around to find that Eris had not moved an inch from the bottom of the stairs. Her eyes were steadily trained at the floor.

"Eris, what's wrong?" I asked concernedly.

She did not look at me. Instead, she grabbed her tail and pulled it close to her. "Are we...really ready for this, Mona?" she asked in a soft tone.

Her question startled me. I did not think she would act like this when she had seemed so excited to form a team minutes earlier. I responded the only way I could: truthfully. "I-I think so. Why do you ask?"

Eris gripped her tail tighter. "It's just... we had this grand idea of coming to Treasure Town and getting a nice job as an exploration team, but...we might be...um...rushing into this?" she finished uncertainly.

I placed a paw on her knee. "Of course we're not rushing. We went to school for this, remember?" I reassured. Honestly, I could not say that I was without a shadow of a doubt, but I knew that my doubt only originated from my nerves.

My mind briefly flashed back to the last time I had to reassure Eris: the school fire. I shivered at the mental image of the raging inferno and of the haunting figure that tried to kill me. I barely managed to shove it to a corner of my mind and refocus on the situation. I had a purpose, too; I would be wise not to forget it.

"Eris, we're going to be fine. Our efforts and dreams are right here, about to be realized. There's no turning back. This is your dream, too. Don't lose sight of it now."

Eris's grip on her tail loosened. "You're right. I'm sorry for getting so worked up," she said.

My paw slid off of her knee. "Don't worry about it. Let's go," I said, gently smiling.

Eris nodded and released her tail. She shakily stood and followed behind me as I strode over to Ray, whose arms were crossed and feet were tapping.

Ray's face was like stone as he said, "Took you long enough. What was that about?"

Anger flared in me at his insensate comment, but I evenly responded, "We're good. Just had a moment. Let's keep going. Where's the guildmaster's room?"

"Down at the end," he said. He pointed over his shoulder without turning his head.

While traversing the hall, Eris exclaimed in surprise and darted over to a section of the wall. Carved in deep lines was a duo of a chikorita and a meowth battling a fearsome dragon pokémon. A giant, flaming rock completely filled the background, and wispy clouds decorated the foreground.

My eyes widened when I recognized the historical meaning behind the artistry. "That's the battle between Rayquaza and Team Azure that helped save the world," I whispered. Ray gazed intently at the painting, remaining silent. I could not ascertain if his expression reflected amazement or apathy. Probably the latter.

A crowd of pokémon milled about the end of the hallway, its noise magnified by the hall's acoustics. Because of the density, we had to forcibly push our way through it. The guild members ignored the three of us as we passed alongside them, but I could sense eyes boring into my back. Those stares painfully reminded me of my days at the school in Oran Forest.

 _And I won't even be able to remedy that...,_ I thought dejectedly. _No, Mona! Don't go down that line of thought! You've been doing so well lately. Just focus._

I breathed a sigh of relief when we exited the throng. In front of me, an iron-wrought door stood under a sign on the wall that depicted a fin with a jagged back.

Appraising the door, I said, "Impressive. This can't be easy to open."

"Yeah," Eris said without thinking. She seemed caught up in her thoughts.

"Well, let's go in," I said, reaching to knock.

"Wait," Ray said, raising a paw to bar me. I cocked my head at him curiously.

"What is it, Ray?" I asked him.

Still holding out his paw, he responded, "I've been thinking about your offer earlier. I want to accept."

For a second, I did not understand what he meant. Then, I realized that was talking about my offer for him to join our exploration team. "Is that so? You really mean it?" I questioned incredulously.

"Yes," he said, sounding irritated at having to repeat himself. "We seem to work well together. I thought it would be a good idea."

 _I can't argue with him there_ , I thought.

"I don't have any objections," I said. "Do you, Eris?"

Eris's mouth opened and closed like a magikarp's. "Ah, uh, well, I…sure? Yeah, sure," she sputtered.

 _I'll take that as a yes, then_ , I thought. Smiling at Ray, I said, "Well then, welcome to the team, Ray."

Instead of thanking us, he rapped sharply on the door. "Guildmaster? We're here to apply for guild membership."

I heard the sound of rustling coming from behind the door. "Enter," a gravelly voice commanded. Ray wrapped his paw around the door handle. The muscles in shoulders tightened powerfully as he swung the door open in a single fluid motion.

For all of the rooms I could have entered, the unexpected splendor of guildmaster's room astonished me. Along the walls, trophies hung from nails or laid in glass cases. A tattered cape and a golden scarf were pinned to the wall, and a case next to it held a row of eight trophies. I barely made out the words "Continental All-Types Battling Tournament-1st Place" on the first trophy, and all of the other trophies were the same as the first. A glass chandelier hung from the elevated ceiling, illuminating the wall's bright brown planks.

In the center of the room stood a burly, hardened garchomp. His immense height towered over all three of us. His scaly blue skin, powerful tail, and blade-like wings only added to his menacing image. Golden eyes, despite their brightness, regarded us coldly.

The guildmaster said nothing at first. I felt as if his stare penetrated me, bearing the entirety of me open for him to view. I tried to meet his eyes, but their intensity forced me to look away.

The guilmaster huffed at my inability to look him in the eyes. "So, you're the new batch of whelps, huh?" he stated rhetorically, passing his eyes over us again. When he reached Ray, his eyes narrowed to slits, and the tension in the room rose several notches.

"What are you doing back here?" the guildmaster growled.

Ray, to his credit, did not quail under the guildmaster's unrelenting gaze. "You told me that you wouldn't accept me unless I had at least one more team member. I have two more pokémon with me now. I've fulfilled your requirements, _Guildmaster_."

I could almost physically see the barbs in Ray's words. The guildmaster perceived them as well, and his face darkened. He crossed his arms over his chest, still not breaking eye contact with Ray. "You have two more pokémon with you; I can see that. But are they your team members?" he asked.

Ray quickly responded, "Yes, they are."

I finally understood Ray's apprehension with coming here. Ironfist was the guild to which he had applied before, apparently, and the guildmaster had denied him entry because Ray was by himself. No wonder he had told us that entering into Ironfist was difficult; he had been denied despite owning a reserve badge.

The guildmaster appeared miffed at his statement. Abruptly shifting the conversation toward me, he asked, "What is your name?"

Keeping calm, I said, "My name is Mona."

"Yours?" the guildmaster asked Eris.

"M-My name's E-Eris," the breloom answered nervously.

"Why have you decided to form an exploration team?" the guildmaster asked us.

I felt fear prick my heart. _Don't panic. Don't panic. You know what to say_ , I encouraged myself. Mustering my courage, I stepped forward. This time, I held eye contact with him, and a wave of adrenaline rushed through me. I lifted my chin high and said, "It's our collective dream to explore the mysteries of the world and discover the secrets it still hides. Alongside exploration, we want to help those who have been lost or are trapped in Mystery Dungeons. To this end, we wished to form an exploration team. In fact, sir, it's a not a decision to form an exploration team: it's a realization of our aspirations."

I thought I saw the guildmaster's mouth twitch in a brief smile of approval, but it vanished as quickly as it came. "A team with a goal doesn't say everything about that team," he said. "How long have you three known—"

The door behind me—or, more accurately, a smaller door that was in the lower half of the big door—suddenly burst open, cutting off the guildmaster's sentence. A small growlithe darted into the room, his red-furred sides heaving.

"Guildmaster Gundabad, sir!" the growlithe gasped, standing to attention while simultaneous straightening the white, dusty cap on his head. "You have a message!"

The guildmaster turned his harsh glare on the growlithe. "This is not the best time, Blaze. What is it?"

Blaze stuttered nervously, "Um, sir, it's a very important message that you have to receive right now!"

The guildmaster uncrossed his arms and said, "Get to the point, Blaze. What is the message?"

The messenger growlithe appeared flustered for a second. "W-well, sir, the message is actually, er, pokémon themselves."

Gundabad sighed angrily. "Blaze. I will not ask again. _Tell me the message._ "

Blaze looked over his shoulder for a second, then nodded. He faced the guildmaster again. "Sir, it's...Team Crescent. They are here to deliver the message themselves since it's critically important," he finished.

The guildmaster's attitude immediately flipped from stern to concerned, completely surprising me. "Get them in here. Now," he ordered.

"Yes, sir!" Blaze responded enthusiastically. He hopped back through the tiny door. After a moment, Team Crescent silently entered into the guildmaster's room. Upon seeing them, I felt my jaw drop off my face.

"Mr. Ace?!" I exclaimed in shock.

Mr. Ace stood before me, Maple and Sculle standing at his sides. Like me, Mr. Ace appeared shocked, but he concealed his emotions much better than I.

"Mona, what are you doing here?" he asked. He sounded almost genuinely curious.

"I'm applying for a guild membership," I responded. _I didn't know that Mr. Ace was a part of Ironfist!_ I thought in astonishment.

However, my surprise morphed into resentment when memories of our previous encounter resurfaced. He had refused to inform me about Shroud and actually insinuated that I would be too emotionally weak to handle it.

Mr. Ace glanced between me, Eris, and Ray. His eyes briefly flickered when he saw me. A palpable tension accrued between us, and I fought the compelling urge to scowl at him. After a moment, he simply slithered past us to the guildmaster.

"Gundabad," he began, "we have urgent news concerning the school fire."

The guildmaster turned his back to them and paced to the back of the room, which had a large, thin mat. He sat down, his back still turned to us. I saw his chest rise and fall, and then he spoke in a harsh tone to us. "You three. Leave. Your ears are not meant for this."

I opened my mouth, but then closed it. _I can't argue with a guildmaster,_ I scolded myself. _I'd probably just botch all of our chances of getting into Ironfist. I'd be better if we just left; although, I really want to hear what they're going to talk about..._

"Wait," Mr. Ace commanded. I looked up at him, but his attention was directed towards the guildmaster. "Gundabad, the eevee and the breloom should actually stay here. They were witnesses to the school fire," he said.

Intrigued, Gundabad peered at me and Eris. His gaze reappraised us, and I thought I saw some of his hostility fade.

"How coincidental. You two will stay, then," he amended.

Ray spoke up as well. "If they're staying, I'm staying." Nobody argued with him; although, Gundabad did softly sigh.

"Tell me your account. Spare nothing," he said. Accordingly, Eris and I explained to him what happened at the school. I did most of the talking; Eris only pitched in when our perspectives slightly diverged (or, when I let her speak so as to give her a better impression with the guildmaster).

When we finished, Gundabad seemed disturbed by our tale. He paced back and forth near a desk at the back of the room. Each of his heavy steps rattled an ink pot on his desk. His tail nicked a piece of wood off the desk, one of several chips already in the wood.

"Crescent," Gundabad finally said, alluding to Mr. Ace's team's name, "is this true?"

"Yup. He got away before Ace could properly tie him down," Maple, the ambipom, said.

"Any other casualties besides the glaceon?" Gundabad asked.

"No," Sculle said. That was the first time that I had heard him speak. His voice sounded much younger than I had anticipated.

"He's still following his pattern, then," Gundabad mused.

Too curious to hold myself back, I asked, "Excuse me, sir, but what do you mean?"

"This is not the first time he's attacked," Gundabad said. He stopped pacing and faced his back to me. He had forgotten his previous comment about our ears not being worthy enough for this information. "Two months ago, I received a report from one of my exploration teams stationed in Hawthorne's satellite town. A fire had suddenly sprung up in a nearby mining town, destroying all of the month's harvest of coal. A strange, hostile figure appeared when the blaze was at its peak. The figure then killed a golett miner and fled the scene."

The guildmaster began to pace back and forth. "Another three weeks later, a report came in from an exploration team near Happy Outlook. A monastery dedicated to the strict worship of Arceus suddenly collapsed under a rockslide from the cliff above it. Shortly after the dust settled, a cloaked figure revealed itself and murdered a xatu monk. In both incidents, the teams quoted the figure saying, 'This is only the beginning.'"

The guildmaster's pacing increased. "Recently, a handful of my exploration teams have been returning from dungeons in extreme conditions. Some have even been close to dying and could only be saved through the efforts of the local hospitals. I know the mysteriousness levels of each and every dungeon on the job request and outlaw boards. Those dungeons should not have capability of producing enough danger to almost outright kill entire teams of trained, hardened explorers. I purposely make sure that I take in what my members can stomach, not what they can't."

He suddenly froze and turned to observe me and Eris. "Now, you tell me about this figure burning down a school, murdering a glaceon student, and reportedly kidnapping a luxio. I can't make sense of it."

Gundabad smashed a claw into the wall in frustration. I cringed from his sudden display of anger. Eris squealed and ducked behind me.

Gundabad removed his claw from the wall, raining splinters onto the floor below. Behind the hole, I saw a solid stone wall with a sizeable dent in it. _My Arceus,_ I thought, _how strong is he?_

When Gundabad had collected himself, he asked, "Ace, do you have any other information to report? I need anything that you can give me."

Mr. Ace was silent for a few seconds. Then, he said, "Yes, but it must be discussed in private."

"Very well, then. You three need to leave," the guildmaster stated again. "You've heard enough. Wait outside my door. And if you want to join my guild...don't say anything to anyone about this matter. I don't want wild rumors to start spreading in this guild."

I bowed to him in respect. Eris followed suit. Ray just marched straight to the door and flung it open. As I followed him out of the room, I cocked my head back and saw Team Crescent conversing in low tones with the guildmaster. Mr. Ace gestured to me once, and the guildmaster gave me an appraising look. Eris moved to close the door.

However, before she did, I heard Maple say: "Our findings at the Ruins of Eld were confirmed. Shroud does seem to be active there, but we've barely found anything."

"Nothing? After all these weeks, nothing—"

The door swung fully shut.

 _They_ do _know something after all_ , I thought with dark satisfaction. Mr. Ace had been hiding something from me back during the graduation ceremony. Back when Shroud and Mr. Ace fought, they had interacted on a familiar basis. Given what I had heard then and heard now, Team Crescent had obviously been pursuing him for a long time.

I would have to check out those "Ruins of Eld" in a library later.

"So, um...What do we do now?" Eris asked meekly. Ray leaned against a wall near the door.

"We wait for the guildmaster or Team Crescent to come out, I guess," I said. _Team Crescent… That name's been tickling me. Team Crescent, Team Crescent…hold on…_

"Ray, do you know anything about Team Crescent? I feel like I've heard the name before," I said to Ray.

He moved from leaning against the wall to standing in front of me. "Yeah, I've heard about them," he answered disinterestedly. "From city rumor, they're apparently the first team to have ventured to all parts of Zero Isle and brought back proof of having cleared its Mystery Dungeons."

I felt my jaw drop, and Eris let go of her tail in shock. "Zero Isle?! That's one of the most difficult dungeons on the continent!" I exclaimed.

Ray shrugged indifferently. "It's just a title. They didn't seem that impressive to me." He plopped down onto the floor with a grunt.

Something had been eating me since we first started speaking with the guildmaster. "What's up between you and Gundabad?" I asked as unthreateningly as I possibly could.

Ray made aggressive eye contact with me. "That's none of your business," he said sharply. I internally sighed. I was starting to learn that Ray truly did not like people asking him questions about himself.

However, I did not expect Eris to say what she did next. "Um, Ray, you can talk about it. We're not going to judge you or anything like that. We're only just curious, and we're teammates and all, so..."

I could see Ray's mind rapidly searching for an answer. "Fine, I'll tell you," he said reluctantly, "but it's not much. I just came in one day, looking to form an exploration team by myself, and _he_ ," he spat this word, "bluntly said no. Then he just told me to get some teammates or never come back."

Eris and I exchanged glances. I hesitantly said, "That's it? That's all the beef between you two?"

"Yep," he curtly replied, only looking at the floor. I sighed and curled up on the ground. _Oh well. At least we made a breakthrough,_ I dryly remarked to myself.

We sat there next to the guildmaster's door for what felt like hours but was most likely only twenty minutes. We must have looked like delinquents because a slew of suspicious or downright unfriendly stares came our way.

Mild depression settled over me and penetrated my thoughts. _I can't ever get away from this. No matter where I go, I always get these stares. They mock me. I bet they're doing it on purpose. Nobody looks at a pokémon like the way they do at me._

 _I wonder…what is it like to evolve? Is it something painful because your bones are growing and realigning? Is it something powerful because you've got a whole new strength that you've never had before? I hate that I—_

I rapidly shook my head. _No, I'm doing it again! I need to_ stop _. Pokémon go into depression thinking like this. Just...read. Yes, read._

With that thought, I flipped open my bag, which was lying on the ground, with my nose. My reserve badge clinked onto the ground along with a few poké. I hastily threw the coins back into my bag, then gently set my Badge into a side pocket. I then dug through the main section, selecting my favorite novel, _Gilded Tears_ , by Lucan Lorraine.

I leapt back onto my chair. The chair wobbled under the sudden force, but I steadied it and carefully set my novel onto the table. I respectfully opened the velvet cover and began reading the first chapter.

 _"I know not of the events of the future, but I know of the happenings of the past. I do not claim to know its entirety. Only Arceus holds that honor. What I write here is a small aspect of the past from my limited pool of knowledge. It is a tale from a time long ago, a time when peace was fleeting, when love was tarnished, and when tears were gilded in blood..."_

Every time I read the beginning, I could not help but feel a chill go down my spine. I knew the story by heart, but anticipation never failed to seize me.

Something rustled on my right. I paid it no mind as I was in a reading trance. The rustling sounded again. I still disregarded it. Then, a green hat shoved its way into my field of view.

"Uh...Eris?" I said awkwardly. "You're kind of blocking my view if you don't mind."

Blushing, she quickly retracted her head from its close proximity to the pages. "Sorry," she murmured sheepishly. "I was just curious, that's all..."

A smile crept onto my face. "No, it's fine. If you want to read, too, I won't stop you. It's a great book."

She gave me a small smile and eagerly leaned towards the pages. I read along with her.

 _"In a small farm out in the wide countryside, a young ralts sung a gentle, sweet song. The words drifted across the farm's meadows and wheat crops. The notes hung in the air as if nature was yearning to hold each note for fear of it slipping away. Of course, all songs had to come to an end, and it was the case with this song. The last lyric danced in the air before the wind whisked it away._

 _"The ralts felt the joy the song gave her fly away with it, for she only sang the song to conceal the sadness she felt inside of her. Around her, the farm was dying. The grass had wilted away long ago, exposing the dry dirt underneath it. The farmhouse's wood had begun to rot from lack of proper care. The few crops that grew in the pasture bore little fruit. All of this originated from one thing._

 _"The Eternal War."_

Once again, a bright green hat blocked my view of the book. Shaking my head, I pushed the book fully in front of Eris. I could read it another time. Eris did not even register the fact that she had complete control of the book; she kept reading as if nothing had changed.

My means of entertainment gone, I laid my head on my paws. The three of us stayed the way we were—me resting, Ray mussing up his collar fur, and Eris reading my book—until the door swung open.

Team Crescent tromped out of the guildmaster's quarters. Ace and Sculle were engaged in a heated conversation, muttering about supplies. Maple, upon noticing us, said, "The guildmaster's summoned you. Get in there." After a pause, she added with a wink, "He's in a better mood now. He's not so tough once you get to know him. Heh."

She waved daintily as she and her teammates waded through the crowd. When they vanished from sight, the pokémon collectively turned toward us. Uncomfortable with the sudden attention, I hastily whisked inside of the guildmaster's room.

"Finally," Ray said as he trailed in after me.

"You three," Gundabad said. He stood like a statue in the center of the room, his arms crossed, acting as if there had been no interruption. "Team Crescent gave me some interesting information regarding you. I have reconsidered whether or not I should accept you, but first, I want to know more about you. Remind me of your names."

"My name is Mona," I answered automatically.

"My name is Eris," Eris said right after me.

"...You already know my name," Ray grunted.

The guildmaster coughed roughly and gave Ray a hard look.

Ray rolled his eyes. "Fine. I'm Ray." He plastered a falsely cheerful smile itself onto his face. I elbowed his waist in response, morphing his smile into a grimace.

"You've already told me why you're here, so let me ask you this: are you willing to become an exploration team together, despite how your personalities are?" Gundabad posed.

His question gave me pause. Admittedly, I felt that we were a merry bunch (cough, cough), but I was pleased with our current state of affairs. We trusted each other; that's what counted. An exploration team is impossible without trust.

"Yes, I am willing," I stated proudly.

"So am I," Eris declared in as proud a voice as she could muster.

"I am, too," Ray said in a proud-ish voice.

"Very well. That's all I need to know. Now, I have made my decision," the guildmaster said. He paused for effect, then declared, "I hereby accept you as members of the Ironfist Guild. What is your team name?"

The sudden euphoria that blanketed me when he said that he would accept us suddenly vanished. _Ohhh crap. What was the team name again? Eris and I decided it on the way to Treasure Town. It was… It was…that!_

During our long travel to Treasure Town, Eris and I had debated for a long time over what our exploration team's name should be. We had bounced name after name off of each other until we settled on a name that had satisfied both of us.

I quietly whispered the name to Ray, who said, "Really?"

"You got any better name?" I replied.

He paused for a moment, then snorted and rolled his eyes in sarcastic concession.

Satisfied, I lifted my head up high. "Our team name will be Team Advent," I uttered.

The guildmaster stared at me long and hard for several seconds, making me squirm uncomfortably. "Interesting name...," he thought aloud.

He turned his back to me, almost striking me with his tail. He strode over to his desk and levitated a nearby Levi-pen over a piece of paper beside the mat. After deftly jotting down several lines of script, he set down the pen and bent over a section of the wall. I could not see what he was doing, but he returned to us moments later with a small bag mysteriously in his claws.

"While you are still officially not an exploration team until this continent's HAPPI branch confirms your registration, you hold all of the rights and permits as if you were an exploration team. Here's your treasure bag," he explained, tossing the bag down at my feet.

I was paralyzed; I could not believe it. Here I was, actually having formed an exploration team. _I did it. I actually did it! I'm in an exploration team!_

I gingerly slid my current bag off my shoulder and reverently slipped the new one onto it. My internal excitement rose several notches.

"Open the bag," Gundabad commanded.

Since I already had the bag on my shoulders, Eris stooped down and lifted the bag's leather flap. She reached inside the bag and miraculously fit her entire forearm into it. Her eyes widened in shock, and she quickly yanked her hand out of the bag.

The guildmaster laughed at the sight. "You haven't seen a treasure bag before, have you? They're _enchanted_ ," the word oddly dropped off his lips, "to contain more room than they should. It allows an explorer to hold more items that a properly dimensioned bag would. Now, reach in there again."

Eris looked between the guildmaster and the bag. She gulped, then lifted the flap and reached into the bag again. She flinched as her wrist and forearm disappeared into the bag's magically expanded interior. I heard her hand brush against a cluster of objects. She quickly retracted her arm, which held a myriad of items, and closed shut the bag.

I observed each item as the laid them out onto the floor: several explorer's badges, a map, a power band, a defense scarf, and a detect band.

"You've had the proper schooling; I don't need to tell you what these scarves do. The map is… _enchanted_ to give you all the locations of all the known dungeons on , you should know this: these explorer's badges carry the weight of our guild with them. If you dishonor yourselves while wearing these badges, you dishonor the whole guild. Do not disappoint," Gundabad said gravely.

Ray immediately reached past me and yanked up the power band. "I should get this one for obvious reasons," he stated airily as he tied the band to his wrist.

I reached forward to take second pick, but I halted my forepaw and stepped back. "Eris, you get second pick," I offered humbly.

Eris seemed shocked and hastily tried to get me to pick one. I denied her attempts and gestured towards the remaining band and scarf. She gave me one final glance, then silently picked up the defense scarf.

Her choice left me with the detect band, which I was going to select anyway. Due to my lack of necessary flexibility, Eris had to tie it around my neck for me, though she had difficulty since she lacked opposable thumbs.

She finished tying it, and I felt a sense of power flow through me. My muscles seemed lighter and more responsive. I felt like I could dodge anything coming my way. _So, this is the evasive power of the Detect Band,_ I mused.

"Team Advent," Gundabad said, using our new team name, "you have reached a point in your lives where a new chapter begins. Challenges you have never faced before will stand before you, and it is up to you whether or not you will fight to overcome them. Are you prepared to accept this?"

I knew the answer before his question even finished crossing his lips. "Yes, we are ready," I said.

A ghost of a smile touched Gundabad's lips. "Then welcome to the world of exploration, Team Advent."

* * *

After congratulating us, the guildmaster gave us a slip of paper and told us to bring it told an altaria named Alice, who was the guild's head secretary. She would give us our room assignment. Her office was located to the right of the stairs on the ground floor, down a hallway, and back of the first room on the right in that hallway.

The altaria had been busy writing in a ledger when we burst in. After handing her our slip, she hastily skimmed through a massive filing cabinet and pulled out a key from one of the folders. She told us our room number was 415 in the member's hall on the floor below, then promptly shooed us out.

Ray told me and Eris that he had to return to his old hideout to grab his stuff. He rebuffed our offer to help him, instead taking the treasure bag. Brusquely saying that he would be back within the hour, he jogged down the street. I half-hoped the dewott would come back just so they could smack him.

Eris and I decided to find our room and wait for Ray to return. Downstairs, the member's hall was much less stately than the Grand Hall, but tall columns still stretched from floor to ceiling. Several floors opened into the hall on the left side, each complete with long balconies. Stone stairs connected each level of rooms.

We climbed up four flights of stairs, me having to awkwardly leap up each step since my legs were too small for them. As such, by the time we reached door number fifteen on floor number four, my legs were on the verge of collapsing from exhaustion.

Eris pushed open the handle-less door to the cozy room. While it had no fireplace like Ray's hideout, it did contain a large cabinet, a circular table with three chairs, and three beds made of straw that were covered in fabric.

True to his word, Ray soon returned, carrying trinkets in his arms. The treasure bag bulged as if threatening to burst. Quickly relieving himself of trinkets by placing them on the table, he dumped the entirety of the contents in the treasure bag on the floor.

"Really, Ray?" I groaned. My inner peace with the orderliness of the room corrupted into turmoil.

"What? We're going to get it sorted," he said.

"But did you have to dump it all over the ground?"

"It's not like I was going to dump it on the bed or the table. I'm going to get it cleaned up."

Typical guys.

Luckily for him, I was too tired to care much about it. Muttering that we could deal with it in the morning, I curled up onto the middle bed and sighed in pleasure. The fabric bed sheet prevented the firm ends of the straw from poking into me while still allowing me to comfortably settle myself on the bed. Eris shoved a few of Ray's things off to the side before settled next to me.

 _My Arceus. We've done it_ , I thought. _This is…crazy. I can't believe this hasn't hit me yet. I'm an explorer now. I'm an explorer now! Holy crap!_

Despite my excitement, I had only lain on the bed for a few minutes before I drifted into the realm of sleep.

* * *

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	8. Chapter 7: The Nightmare

**\- Chapter 7: The Nightmare -**

My eyes flickered open. I was not in my bed. Instead, I laid on rough, dry dirt under a twisted, dead tree. Sharp rocks dug uncomfortably into my side, yet I felt no pain from them.

 _Where am I?_

I rolled off of my side and pushed myself to my paws. Surrounding me was a crop of dying rawst berry bushes. A rotten wooden fence enclosed the cropland.

 _What is this place?_

I crawled through a crumbling gap in the fence, my heart thumping. When I stepped onto the other side, dead grass pricked my paw pads. Again, I felt no pain—not even a prick.

A hill gently sloped down from me to a decaying farmhouse. My curiosity piqued, I ambled down the slope and up to the farmhouse's entrance. As I drew closer, I noticed that the farmhouse's doors dangled loosely on their hinges and that rot clung tenaciously to farmhouse's feeble wooden planks.

 _This place…_

I stepped inside the building. Unlike the exterior, the interior maintained a shred of decency. Freshly sweapt stalls lined the walls. Water was pooled in the wash rack. Something had just been cleaned there, yet nothing was in the stalls.

 _Does someone…live here?_

Past the farmhouse laid more dismal fields. Those fields contained huge plots of withering crops. The fallow fields seemed as if they had just been ready for planting, for I could see faint till lines running unevenly along the field.

Seeing the ruined land before me struck a mournful chord in my heart. The sheer number of crops spoke of how this farm had once been bustling with large numbers of farm hands, all busy planting young seeds or harvesting ripened crops.

 _This farm is dying—no, it is dead._

Saddened, I trod mournfully through the fields. In all of my life, I had never seen a place so drained of life as this one. Dried bits of grass flurried up from my pawsteps, but there was no wind to carry them away.

Far in the distance, I could see mountains, canyons, and valleys, yet they held no vibrancy. The mountain's rock dully absorbed the sun's rays instead of brilliantly reflecting them. The canyons were steeped in shadow darker than night, and the valleys contained a multitude of heavy rocks and steep inclines. Nothing, not even nature, escaped the harsh, unforgiving embrace permeating the air.

 _This whole place has been strangled of its vitality._

It was then that I noticed a song drifting into my ears. The words were in a language unknown to me, but the song's lilting beauty and dull, depressed undertone caused a great melancholy to well up within me. A sense of déjà vu overtook me.

 _What is that song?_

I searched around the dead fields, trying to find the source of the song, which was my only connection to life in this desolated land. I had to find who was singing this song. I needed it. I needed _something_ in the midst of all this _nothing_.

Thankfully, my search did not last long. I spied the pokémon who was singing the song: a ralts. She sat on a fence, comparatively small to the vast fields surrounding her. Her white fur dangled on her body like a dress. Her short, green hair extended just over her eyes, but I could tell that they were dripping tears. Her hands tightly gripped the fence to try to still her quaking body.

She looked to the sky as she held out one long last note. It warbled in the air, but it did not echo. When the note faded, her head dropped to her chest. I could hear her audibly sobbing.

I opened my mouth to speak, but I hesitated. The ralts seemed really upset. She had just been singing a mournful tune, and the only way she could have sung it that convincingly was if she herself felt the same. I was tempted to let her cry in peace, yet I knew I could not leave her be if I could help it.

"Hey!" I called out to her. My voice, for some reason, rang with a deep undertone when I spoke. "Are you okay? Do you know where I am?"

The ralts immediately jerked her head up from her chest after I finished speaking. She stared at me silently, her eyes still dripping tears.

"It's okay; I'm not going to hurt you. I just want to know where I am," I soothed, walking slowly closer. I lowered my ears to appear less threatening. She opened her mouth to speak, but no words came out. Instead, her eyes widened fearfully, and she mouthed something incomprehensible. She jumped off the fence and tensed, training her eyes warily on me.

"Woah, woah, I'm not dangerous. I just want to know where I am," I said calmly.

The ralts took a step backwards. Her tears stared falling at a faster rate.

I halted. "No, no, please don't cry! It's okay! I just want an answer! That's all!" I shouted, unintentionally abandoning my pacified demeanor. My voice rang with a powerful echo. The ralts screamed and fled.

"Wait!" I cried in my strangely altered voice, sprinting after her.

I chased her past fields, over fences, and around dead trees. Despite running at my top speed, the ralts always seemed one step ahead of me. I barely realized when we crossed from fields of Berry bushes into fields of crumbling wheat and barley. I did not feel the stalks whipping past my face, nor did I feel a burning pain in my legs for sprinting the distance I was.

I broke free of the stalks and onto the edge of a sharp drop. The ralts trembled at the edge of the cliff. Her gaze connected with mine, and I observed all of the fear flickering behind her bloodshot eyes. She knew she was cornered, and I did as well.

"Please, just calm down!" I begged, which sounded odd coupled with my resonant voice. "I'm not going to hurt you. Just tell me where I am."

The ralts stared at me in terror. She instinctually took one step backwards from the cliff's edge and into open air. With a cry of shock, she plummeted into the canyon below the cliff.

"NO!" I screamed, running to the edge. I clung to the cliff, my claws sinking into the dirt to hold me steady. I tried to find any sign of the ralts's body on the rocky terrain below me. However, I could not find her, no matter how hard I squinted.

I pushed myself away from the edge and sat on my hind legs.

 _Where to now? I have no idea where I am, and that ralts just fell off the cliff. Arrgh, what's even going on here?!_

A loud crash silenced my thoughts. I curiously looked over the cliff again, thinking that the ralts had hit the bottom somehow. Not noticing anything different, I shrugged my shoulders and leaned back from the edge.

"Mona…," a voice whispered in the wind.

Suddenly, the earth rumbled beneath my feet. I heard a rush like a muted torrent of water from behind me. I turned around and stared in a horrified trance at the fearsome force before me.

It was a torrent of all-consuming darkness.

It swamped the fields, devouring the Berry bushes, wheat, barley, and fences as if they were small, inconspicuous twigs. As I watched, the torrent of darkness reached upwards and outwards towards the heavens above. It slowly tainted the sky until it reached the sun, which it devoured, casting the land in deep shadow.

The rushing, relentless darkness flooded down the slope and to me.

 _Run! RUN!_

I could not move. My legs would not respond. Only a cliff laid behind me. I could only stare in fear as the darkness drew closer to me. I did not even have time to scream before it consumed me in its dark embrace.

Darkness. Despair. Hatred. Anger. Powerlessness. Hopelessness. Fear.

I felt all of this from the darkness. The feelings oppressed me, trying to obliterate me.

Then, the pain started.

I did the only thing I could: I screamed. I could not stop screaming. I kept screaming even when the darkness flooded into my mouth. My entire body screamed with me, and it thrashed in the rolling darkness. Gravity held no grip on me. Only cold, pain, and the darkness held me aloft.

"Mona..."

 _A voice..._

"Mona..."

 _Help me, please, whoever you are! It hurts! It hurts so much!_

Something grabbed my throat. A dark figure consumed my vision. A hand raised itself high above me. Dark shadows encased the hand, transforming it into a twisted version of itself.

 **"Mona…,"** the figure said coyly.

I could not defend myself. I could hardly breathe. The figure shifted as if sensing my despair, then a dark laughter filled the air. The claws descended towards my defenseless skull. Even though I knew that a pokémon's body held strong natural defenses to elemental attacks, a gut feeling told me that the claws would pierce my skull and rip my brain apart.

The instant before they pierced me, a bright light shone, and I blacked out.

* * *

I slammed awake, my breath coming in heavy gasps. Darkness surrounded me, but its embrace caressed me gently, not at all like that other darkness. My paws pressed into a soft bed instead of the hard ground I was expecting to feel.

I breathed out deeply, trying to steady myself. _It was just a dream. It was all just a dream. I didn't nearly die. I just fell asleep_ , I thought.

Still, I could not help but tremble at the mere thought of what I recently experienced. I leaned forward and pressed my head into my bed, ignoring the bits of straw that poked my face through the fabric. I laid in that position for several minutes, my head spinning.

 _No, that wasn't a dream. It was a nightmare._

Sucking in a breath, I tried to calm myself.

 _I haven't had a nightmare in...well, I can't remember how long. This is just so weird. I didn't see anything terrible yesterday. I only had happy emotions! How could I...oh, no, not..._ that.

My paws curled into fists. Images of Shroud and the school fire danced like wild beasts in my head. I pressed my face deeper into the straw, trying and failing to erase the sight of Lucy.

 _Augh! I need a distraction... Reading. Yes, reading. My trusty, faithful books. I can always count on them to suck me away from reality._

I stealthily slid off of my bed and reached into my Treasure Bag at the foot of my bed. Thankfully, Eris had shoved my old bag into my newer one as we were walking out of the guild yesterday.

Since I had started _Gilded Tears_ yesterday, I wanted to continue reading it. Carefully, I pulled it out of the bag with my mouth. I walked over to the table and hopped into a chair. Setting my book down on the table, I lit a candle on the table using my mouth. Then, I opened it to the beginning and re-read it. I always loved to read the beginning of any story over and over again.

I had only read the first three paragraphs when I suddenly stopped.

 _That's...no way..._

My heart thumping, I read the third paragraph a second time.

 _"The ralts felt the joy the song gave her fly away with it, for she only sang the song to cover up the depression she felt inside of her. Around her, the farm was dying. The grass had wilted away long ago, exposing the dry dirt underneath it. The farmhouse's wood had begun to rot from lack of proper care. The few crops that grew in the pasture bore little fruit. All of this originated from one thing."_

I stared at that paragraph, my mind whirling. _That...That's my nightmare. I had a nightmare in a scene from my favorite book. How, though? It's never given me nightmares before now. Maybe my stress about this whole exploration team thing got to me, and because the last thing I imagined in detail was that scene, the setting for my nightmare was that scene? No, that's implausible. It's just a coincidence._

 _But...I saw_ him _. I saw Shroud._

I refocused on the book in front of me, but I did not begin reading it again. I had lost my appetite for words. I closed my book and left it on the table. My mind still reeled in shock at my realization of my nightmare's setting, but I knew I had to try to sleep more. I had to be rested and prepared for the morning.

Resigned, I blew out the candle, silently slid from my chair, and slipped into my bed. I felt as if I had only just closed my eyes when a loud banging awoke me. Blearily, I shook my head and opened my eyes. I heard a groan come from the bed on my right. Rolling over onto my left side, I watched as Ray flung his bedsheet to the side. Strangely, he slept under his bedsheet instead of on top of it.

"Morning," I greeted in false cheer.

"Uhhnn," he grunted back.

I flipped onto my right side and stared at Eris. She still slept, blissfully unaware of the banging sounds coming from the rooms next door. I leaned over and experimentally poked her hat. Her head twitched, but she did not exhibit any other reactions.

"Eris?" I whispered to her. She did not respond. I frowned and said her name louder. She still did not awake.

"ERIS, WAKE UP!" I shouted while shaking her.

This time, she woke.

"Aaaah!" she cried. Her body sluggishly responded to my slap on her head. Instead of sitting up straight, she tumbled onto the floor in a green-and-tan heap.

"Lovely," Ray mumbled. "Now I know what waking up on the wrong side of the bed looks like."

I ignored his comment and rose off my bed in a more dignified, though no less sleepy, manner than Eris. I turned to face a drowsy Eris and grumpy Ray.

"Well, guys, this is our first day as explorers," I said momentously.

"Feels like any other morning," Ray said.

"I've had better mornings...," Eris whispered.

I sighed. "Well, okay, this is just another morning, but it's still important! We're going to get breakfast and go pick our first job as explorers!"

I marched to my bed, slipped my bag around my shoulders, and marched back to the door to our room. "C'mon, guys! Breakfast won't wait for us!" I reached a paw to the door to open it.

"Do you know where breakfast actually is?" Ray asked.

I paused. I actually did not know where breakfast was, but a clever response rose on my tongue. "Well, we just follow the crowd, right? We'll get there faster if we follow them. They _have_ been in this guild since they were most likely apprentices. They'd know where the breakfast area is."

Ray cocked his head to the side, saying, "True. Let's go, then. I'm hungry." He walked toward me, leaving Eris to hastily untangle herself and bound over to us. Without another second wasted, I threw open the door.

Immediately, the door smacked against someone. Shocked, I rushed out of our room. I was rather startled when I saw the pokémon I had struck.

"You have awoken. Good," Walter said, rising from the ground. Despite being hit with a door, he seemed unfazed.

My eyes widened in shock. I had just hit the gatekeeper with a door on my first day here—in the morning, no less!

"I'm so sorry, Walter! I didn't mean to hit you!" I apologized profusely.

"Do not worry. I am not hurt. In fact, I did not feel anything," he stated.

His statement confused me. "Uhh, if you don't mind me asking, how could you not feel a door slamming into you?"

I almost thought I saw a flicker of amusement in his eyes. "I am not actually here," he explained. "This is a mere Substitute that I created and am telekinetically manipulating as I must remain stationed on my gatekeeper duty. I cannot feel pain through this doll of myself."

 _Clever use of Substitute. I never would've thought it could've been used like that,_ I thought.

"Enough idle talk. My Substitute is here to give you a tour of the guild upon the guildmaster's direct orders. Follow me. Your tour begins now," Walter's Substitute said. It vaulted over the balcony and lightly descended to the ground floor.

We stared at him enviously as he blissfully bypassed all of the traffic along the stairs.

"...I wish I was an espeon. Then I would be able to Psychic myself and float down the floors like he did," I said longingly.

Eris turned to look at me oddly. "Then, why don't you evolve into one? You seem like you're strong enough to evolve!"

My mind scrambled for an answer. I had to be something other than the truth; nobody could know. "Um...Well...," I stuttered. "Espeon need to be...happy! To evolve into an espeon, I need to be highly content with myself and my life. I don't fully have that, given the fact that my life has changed dramatically in the past few weeks, so I can't evolve into an espeon."

Eris appeared to process my response for a moment, then beamed. "I guess we'll just have to work out what form you're going to evolve into someday! I've heard it's a tough choice, but I know that you'll sort it out!"

"Yeah, someday," I said, plastering a fake smile on my face. _Whew. Close one._

Our conversation now effectively ended, we trudged alongside the crowd and down the stairs. Once again, I had to hop down each step due to my small legs, forcing the foot traffic to slow behind me. I ignored the annoyed grumbles behind me like I always did, focusing on maintaining my balance.

When we reached the bottom of the stairs, we exited into the Grand Hall and searched for Walter. We found him floating under the depiction of Team Azure's perilous battle against the fierce Rayquaza. As we walked to him, he turned from observing the magnificent scene to us.

"We will begin our tour here," Walter said through the doll. "This hall is known as the Grand Hall, which is the main hall in the subterranean level of the guild. Today's tour will only concern this level. Touring the upstairs will be for another time."

He gestured to the carving behind him without looking backwards at it. "This scene depicts one of the most monumental events in recorded history: the battle between Team Azure and the Lord of the Skies, Rayquaza. Upon Team Azure's inexplicable victory over Rayquaza, the chikorita, who was once a human, and meowth team convinced Rayquaza to destroy a meteor that would otherwise have obliterated the world on impact. Somehow, the two survived the resulting shower of debris and lived to tell the tale."

Once he finished his explanation, he moved to another carving on the right. This image contained two battles: a piplup and vulpix battling a corrupted, roaring dragon on the left and the same duo, plus a pokémon that looked like it was surrounded in rings of glimmering aurorae, fighting against a levitating, wispy pokémon on the right. A distinct line divided the two battles.

"This carving is split in two. The left half depicts Team Mythos's battle against the Lord of Time, Dialga, who had almost completely corrupted into a being known as Primal Dialga. The right half also depicts Team Mythos, but they are fighting against the being known as Darkrai, who was the true cause for time and space's unraveling and Dialga's corruption. They had the help of Darkrai's archenemy, Cresselia. The three defeated Darkrai, but Darkrai was lost after Palkia struck the Dimensional Hole in which Darkrai was fleeing," Walter's Substitute told us.

Then, the Substitute floated to a third carving. It was also split into two fights. The upper half contained a snivy and an axew dueling a fearsome dragon that wielded awe-inspiring ice powers. The lower half depicted a lone snivy fighting against a massive snowflake-like object. Around the snivy were swirls and mist, almost as if the battle was waged in a surreal space. In contrast, the top battle depicted harsh lines and jagged spikes, resembling an icy battlefield.

Walter inhaled deeply, then explained, "This image shows an artist's rendition of the two most recent, world-saving battles. Both occurred in a location known as the Great Glacier in a continent far beyond our borders. In the top half, Team Valiant, the snivy and the axew, battles Kyurem, the ice dragon who foretold the world's imminent doom. The lower half is an artist's rendition of the battle between the human-turned-snivy and the manifestation of all pokémon's negativity, the Bittercold, which was destined to destroy the world by sucking it in like a black hole."

I stared with fascination at the intricate artistry displayed in every detail of the carving. What intrigued me more, however, was the fact that Ironfist even had such images of the world's history. I posed my thought to Walter.

"A good question," he responded. "Our guild places a high value on history. We have these carvings on our walls to remind us of the pokémon who made it able for us to stand here today in fellowship. I only have time to show you these three images, but if you do want to look at the rest of them later, each carving depicts an important event in history with a corresponding plaque below it. Now, we must continue the tour."

Walking back to the beginning of the hall, we followed Walter through a door to our right emerged into a long, brightly lit hallway. Lining the hallway were multiple doors coupled with windows to peer into each room.

"This is the training hall," Walter's Substitute said. He then gestured to the doors and windows along the sides of the hall. "Here, experienced exploration teams train apprentices to become proper explorers. Members themselves still have the option to train here, and that privilege extends to you three, despite having entered with your reserve badges."

We did not enter any of the rooms; Walter simply brought us out of the training hall. He then guided us along the halls on the left side of the Grand Hall. We saw the apprentices' hall, which contained fewer rooms and levels than the members' hall, and the bathrooms.

Our next part of the tour covered the right side of the Grand Hall. The only other area beside the members' hall on that side was the mess hall. The smell of delicious berry cooking filled my nose, but strange, foreign scents tickled my nostrils as well.

Walter led us under the mess hall's curved archway. Rows of circular tables scattered the mess hall's vast floor. Along the far end, pokémon formed a line in front of a decadent, savory breakfast buffet.

"I do not need to explain what this place is," Walter's Substitute stated dryly. "Go ahead and eat. The tour is almost over."

The three of us needed no further prompting. We dashed over to the buffet line, eager to choose our food and eat it. However, Ray and I immediately encountered a problem: both of us were too short to reach food on the line ourselves.

Thankfully, Eris graciously grabbed three platters for us. As we walked down the long line of breakfast food, she served our food choices on our plates for us.

The sheer amount of food on the tables amazed me. Not only did the buffet have prime, warm berries arranged in elegant designs, but a variety of other items covered the spaces between the berry plates.

"What's that?" I asked, pointing to a flat, round, doughy object. Its light brown color appealed to me in addition to the fact that its mouth-watering scent enticed me.

"That's a pancake, Mona," Ray said, sounding like he was well acquainted with the food. "It's a common breakfast item. You've never had it before?"

I shook my head. "Nope. I've mainly had berries and vegetables, but I've had other things, too. You ever heard of jelly cream biscuits?"

"…No. Sounds gross," Ray said, his lip curling in disgust.

Eris placed a pancake on my plate. "I've, um, had a pancake before," she shared shyly. She placed another pancake on my plate at my request. "My parents took me outside the forest to a trading village on the right side of Apple Woods. They had really good, uh, food at the inn where we stayed."

"Must've been nice," I mumbled. _My parents never really took me out of the forest,_ I thought sorrowfully.

At the end of the buffet, I noticed a few plates of deep brown food that I had never seen in my entire life. I leaned closer to the tabletop and sniffed deeply. Immediately, a hideous smell assuaged my nostrils, forcing me to scramble from the table and cough harshly.

"Ugh! Bleh!" I hacked in disgust. "What _are_ those things?!"

A snort came from the left of me. "It's sausage. Geez. You don't have to get so riled up about a bit of cooked tauros flesh," Ray said sardonically.

Horror blossomed in my chest. "You mean...that that's...a cooked pokémon's body?" I whispered.

Ray face-palmed. "Arceus, you make it sound like it's cannibalistic. No, it's not the whole pokémon; it's only the choicer cuts. Some pokémon need to eat meat to live. It's a part of life. Get over it."

My stomach churning, I nodded meekly and scurried away from the buffet line. _My word. I never, ever want to see that again. That's just terrible!_ I thought, briefly looking over my shoulder. Ray and Eris were following me to the table. Thankfully, neither of them had meat on their plates. I breathed a sigh of relief.

We chose a small table near the center of the mess hall and dug into our chosen meals. I soon learned that pancakes tasted absolutely heavenly. I almost forgot to eat my berries because of their deliciousness.

When I finished, I relaxed into my seat, a warm feeling settling over me. I wanted to curl up and sleep right there, but I remembered that Walter had mentioned that the tour was almost, but not quite, finished.

Sighing, I slowly slid from my seat. I looked at both Eris and Ray, then said, "C'mon guys. The tour's not complete yet. We still have more stuff to see."

"What else could there be to see?" Ray said, mostly to himself.

"Something, obviously."

"No dip."

Eris placed our trays on a rack near the buffet table. We then rejoined Walter, who brought the three of us back into the Grand Hall. He guided us to the end of the hall near the guildmaster's room. Once again, a crowd thronged around the area. This time, however, I could see why a crowd stood here.

On each of the last two of the support columns was nailed a massive wooden board. On their surfaces were many papers inscribed with text and pictures of items or pokémon's faces. Even as we watched, a few papers were torn down, leaving scraps still attached to the tacks.

"This is perhaps the most important area of the guild," Walter's Substitute said as we wound through the crowd. "Here, you will select a job from either the Job Bulletin Board or the Outlaw Board. Upon picking that job, you are obligated to complete it, but there is no true time frame to complete that job."

We reached the board on the left side. Walter's Substitute gestured to the board, saying, "This is the Job Bulletin Board. The guild recommends that any new team, regardless of being apprentices or Reserve-Badge-access members, should take a job from the Job Bulletin Board first. Hunting for outlaws is better suited for teams who have more experience under their Badges."

"I bet we could give any low-level outlaw a run for his or her money," Ray huffed haughtily, crossing his arms in a definitive position.

Eris shyly said, "Um, we should probably take things slow. We don't ha-have experience, like Walter said, so, uh, we should just take a job from this board."

I saw Ray's face darken. "We are team of three against only one outlaw. Plus, you're an evolved pokémon! You have so much power at your disposal! You could knock out a measly outlaw easily if you just tried!"

Eris squirmed. "Well, I, uh...," she stuttered.

Despite his blunt phrasing, I hesitantly agreed with Ray's point. _She is an evolved pokémon, and she does have power. I'll give her that. She saved me from that mightyena back in that twisted Magnagate Dungeon,_ I thought.

I gave Eris a scrutinizing glance. Her face was nervous, almost antsy, and she gripped her tail like it was her only lifeline. _Still, that power show was a one-time thing. She's never done anything else like that at all._

I halted the developing argument by saying, "Guys, let's just take a job on the Job Bulletin Board. It doesn't have to be a difficult job, but at the same time, it doesn't have to be super easy."

Eris appeared glad for my intervention. Ray opened his mouth to retort, but he shut it a second later after he processed my compromising words. His paws gripped his biceps tightly, though.

"Sure, let's just go with the Job Bulletin Board," he conceded none-too-happily.

"Now that we're settled," I said, "I'll pick a job."

I craned my head upwards and examined each job listed on the board. _Finding a lost friend... Taking someone on a tour of a dungeon... Reuniting team members... Wow, so many jobs! Which one should I take? Hmm...that one looks good!_

"That job," I stated, pointing with my forepaw to a job near the top of the Job Bulletin Board. "Eris, could you grab that for me?"

Eris nodded and tore the piece of paper from the board. She proffered the piece of paper to all three of us.

"Nice pick," Ray said grudgingly. "Not a bad reward, either, for a job like that."

I read the job request silently.

 _Client: Maractus_

 _Description: Lost one reviver seed while exploring a dungeon. Requests that item be found and returned._

 _Dungeon: Seacoast Cliffs_

 _Difficulty: E_

 _Estimated Floor: ? (Not provided)_

 _Time Frame: Within one day of acceptance._

 _Reward: 300 poké_

Walter's Substitute floated closer to Eris. "Allow me to see that," he commanded.

Eris handed the paper to the Substitute. He glanced over it before nodding approvingly.

"This is a good job to take," he said, handing Eris the job request, which she put in my treasure bag for me. "Just make sure to report to Alice, the head secretary of the guild. She'll make sure the items you gathered will go to the right person. This concludes your tour."

Before we could thank him, he disappeared in a puff of smoke. Eris yelped and covered her head defensively.

"That's just how Substitutes vanish, Eris. No need to panic," I said calmly to the breloom. "He knew that he was done guiding us, so he ended the Substitute."

"Y-yeah, that sounds g-g-good," Eris stuttered.

Internally sighing at her unnecessary fear, I moved away from Eris and waded through the crowd around the two boards. Without Walter guiding us, no one took heed of our presence, which meant that no one moved out of our way. That is, until I remembered just how clumsy Eris can be.

"Ow! My foot!"

"Oops, sorry..."

"Hey, watch your tail! It's slinging about like it has a mind of its own!"

"I'm sorry! Sorry..."

"Woah, that's my Radar Orb! Don't try and trash it!"

"I'm so, so sorry..."

Needless to say, we soon had a very clear path through the crowd and out of the guild.

* * *

Out on the streets, we steadily walked north towards the town's northern exit. Our target dungeon laid north of town, making that exit our quickest and easiest path. From that point, we only had to travel north along the coast for roughly two hours, then we would reach our destination.

We purchased some food for our journey using the money my parents had given me. At my behest, we stopped at a bank near the guild so I could store my excess money. The creepy duskull at the bench greedily snatched my money, muttering about how it would be eternally safe with him. For a reason I did not know, I trusted him, despite how shady he was acting.

I did not tell my team why I decided to store all of my money. I could not tell them that I was afraid of losing my money to the Mystery Dungeon. It was common knowledge that if you fainted in a dungeon, you awoke outside of it with no money in your bag.

That was a risk I was not willing to take.

As we walked farther north, poorer and more desolate pokémon clogged the streets. One small skiploom was begging on the side of the street, tears dripping from her closed eyes. Her crying face pulled at my heartstrings until I tossed a small apple into a tin near her. Her radiant smile, despite her ragged appearance, warmed me far more than the strongest fire could, and I could tell from experience.

Beyond the poor section of Treasure Town lay the town's perimeter and the docks. We avoided entering the docks, instead opting to circumvent them after seeing particular tough pokémon walking among the unloaded cargo.

After crossing outside of the town, we navigated northeast through the docks until we reached the sparkling ocean. The waves beautifully glistened in the morning sun, appearing the same as the last time I saw it on top of Sharpedo Bluff.

Eris could not contain herself. With a scream of delight, she dove into the surf with reckless abandon. I smiled at her playful antics, but next to me, Ray stopped and frowned. I elbowed him and playfully motioned at the ocean, but he shook his head and began walking once more.

I shook my head in return and yelled at Eris to come out of the ocean. She hesitated for a moment, then my second yell summoned her out of the ocean and back on our journey to the Mystery Dungeon.

The sun hung high in the sky when we sighted the dungeon.

"There!" I shouted, pointing towards a cluster of cliffs jutting above the ocean. The land formed uneven rocky ledges as it rose sharply to meet the cliffs. At the bottom of the path to the top laid two opposing stones.

We stopped and gazed at the entrance to the Mystery Dungeon. The stones, which had seemed normal from far away, were in fact twisted and warped unnaturally. The path itself almost seemed to shimmer in the sun, and when I looked at it from the corner of my eye, it disappeared from my vision entirely.

"Here we are, team," I said. "This is the entrance to our Mystery Dungeon: Seacoast Cliffs. Let's see what we have to find again..."

I set my bag on the ground and dung into its contents. Pulling out our job request with my teeth, I unrolled it and re-read its description.

"Hmm...Good. Just one item: a reviver seed. It should be easy to find since that type of seed is pretty rare."

Ray placed a paw on his hip. "Yeah, but we still have to find it. We have an entire dungeon to search. Plus, all seeds look the same. How're we supposed to tell the difference?"

I shrugged my shoulders. "I can tell the difference. Just pick up any seeds you find, and I'll be able to tell."

With that settled, we entered into the Seacoast Cliffs Mystery Dungeon.

* * *

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	9. Chapter 8: The War Has Begun

**\- Chapter 8: The War Has Begun -**

Blackness surrounded me. Silence encompassed me. Coldness pervaded me. Brief seconds passed in the space of minutes.

I had been freed from the confines of the world. The calmness from this void almost seemed blissful and serene, yet a creeping chill lingered on the fringes of my limited perception. It swallowed me without remorse, without hesitation, and without fear. Its icy grip clenched me powerfully, carrying me to a destination only it knew.

Then, it abruptly hurled me back into reality.

My paws crashed onto a sandy surface, scraping my calloused pads. Miraculously, I retained my balance on the unstable surface beneath me. Shaking my dizzy head, I blinked rapidly and tried to focus my swirling vision on the ground below me.

"Ugh...," I groaned. "Guys...are we all here?"

A pair of moans answered my question.

My swimming vision steadied, so I could finally observe my surroundings. In front of me loomed a wall of smooth, flawless sandstone. Pebbles of shale, slate, and granite dotted the floor next to shells of varying shades of white and gray. The walls encased us in a rectangular room that was devoid of anybody but us.

 _It's so bright, too,_ I thought as I squinted my eyes against the reflection of light against the sand. _This dungeon is not at all like that corrupted Magnagate Mystery Dungeon. Maybe because the dungeon is based off an aboveground location, it has the sun in it? It would make sense._

"Arrgh, this bright light is killing me," Ray grumbled. He rubbed his eyes to adjust them, but he still squinted nonetheless. "This is going to make it difficult to find that reviver seed."

Still angry at him, I ignored him and took stock of the room itself. We had a choice of two corridors: one branching to our left and another extending to our right. I quickly made a decision, then said, "Guys, let's head left."

"Sure!" Eris replied eagerly—almost too much so. I glanced over my shoulder at her; she beamed back at me. I could easily tell that she was trying to put the argument behind us.

 _Maybe I should, too_ , I thought, but that was all it was: a , I crossed the room and entered into the left corridor, Eris following closely behind me. After a moment, I heard Ray join us at the rear.

We wound our way through the corridors, carefully scanning each intersection before choosing a new path. Eventually, we reached another room. Like the one before it, only sand and stones filled its interior.

"Well, the seed's not this one! Let's keep going," Eris said, still with an unnecessarily cheery overtone. She marched across the sand and into another corridor.

 _She's optimistic,_ I thought. _Well, I shouldn't be complaining; I am, too! Just not as emphatically._

The corridor that Eris chose led directly to another room, but this time, the room did not simply contain sand and stones.

"Ah! A feral pokémon!" Eris cried. Quaking with fear, she ducked back into the corridor.

Ray sighed and wiped a paw on his face. "C'mon, have you never fought before? It sounds like it's only one measly pokémon. If you won't go, I will."

He swept past Eris and charged into the room with a brazen shout. I brushed past Eris as well and followed Ray. As much of a pain as he had been, I was not going to let him fight without anybody supporting him.

I gasped when I saw the pokémon sleeping in the center of the room. Even though its eyes were shut, I could see the ferocity carved into its rocky features. Scars lined the feral's rocky body like the furrows made in a field before planting. Its bladed hands were chipped and worn as if they had experienced many battles.

"Ray, look out! That kabutops is dangerous!" I shouted to the riolu.

He ignored my warning and continued to charge towards the kabutops. One of his paws lit up in a soft orange light. When he drew close, he placed in his glowing paw on the kabutops's chest. The kabutops only had time to snap its eyes open before Ray's Force Palm blasted him to the other side of the room.

 _Woah, that's some strength,_ I thought as the kabutops fell from his crater in the wall. _Why didn't he use that move on those dewott?_

Ray straightened his posture and shifted into a defensive stance. I briefly noticed his Power Band flutter in the air. _I bet that's giving him a power boost,_ I realized.

Meanwhile, the kabutops had recovered from the super-effective attack. His long, bladed arms ignited with a fierce white energy, then he silently charged towards his attacker. The speed at which he charged astounded me, and it seemed to catch Ray off-guard as well.

Before Ray could dodge, the kabutops sliced his Slash attack across Ray's face, sending him barreling towards us. He rolled to a stop at Eris's feet and did not move. She squealed at the sight and cowered behind the corner.

 _No, Ray!_ I thought. I rotated my head towards Eris, who was shaking behind me with fear dancing in her eyes. _Where's the fight in her when I was in danger?_ I thought, miffed. Shaking my head, I focused on the problem at hand. _It doesn't matter, though. We're still in danger!_

Bravely, I placed myself in front of Ray and growled at the kabutops. My high-pitched snarl was not suited for intimidation, but I still tried to create a threatening image. If I could distract the kabutops for long enough, Ray would have a chance to recover.

Thankfully, the kabutops shifted his focus to me. Leaping toward me, he mercilessly swung his Slash at my head. Crying out, I ducked under his blades and rolled away from him.

Shocked that I had dodged him, I glanced down at the detect band around my neck. _I almost forgot it was there! Thank goodness I had it, or else I probably would have been hit by that Slash._

The sound of objects whistling through the air snapped me back to attention. I quickly dodged the Slash again, letting the evasive power of the detect band guide my movements.

My skillful roll brought me behind the kabutops. Taking advantage of his exposed back, I jumped into the air while allowing my natural energy to course through me. A white cone of energy formed in front of me right before I slammed into the kabutops.

Unfortunately, my attack did not have the effect I desired. The kabutops merely glared at me over his shoulder, an angry expression on its face.

 _Dang! I don't have any good, fast attacks against a rock-type,_ I remembered. _I can only use Dig._

Filling my paws with ground-type energy, I started to dig into the sand but hastily had to retreat as the tunnel quickly collapsed.

 _No! This sand is too dry and loose. I can't use Dig without my tunnels crushing me!_

In my momentary distraction, the kabutops had wheeled around and struck at me again. I gasped and crouched low to the ground. My height, plus the power of the detect band, allowed me to dodge the Slash, but I was not prepared for the second blade to swing at me right after the first blade.

The second attack connected and sent me tumbling along the sand floor. My head struck a rock painfully, dazing me as I skidded to a halt. I struggled to stand but found that I was too dizzy to even shift my paws underneath me.

"Kreeaaah!" the kabutops screeched, sensing the moment of its victory. He swiftly closed the gap between us and thrust his blades into my side. My lungs constricted as my breath was knocked out of me, leaving me wide open for another attack. I saw the kabutops's eyes gleam savagely; then, he raised his blades to strike the final blow.

"Mona!" a voice cried desperately. My body, still trying to suck in air, could not turn its head, but I still perceived the kabutops vanishing from my peripheral vision. A huffing Eris took his place, her fist simmering with a deep orange glow.

My eyes widened in surprise. I knew that Eris had rescued me, but something seemed different about her. Her face held no trace of fear. Instead, she proudly hovered over me, ready to defend me from the kabutops.

The kabutops had landed in my line of sight. He struggled to move, severely injured by Eris's super-effective Mach Punch. With a feeble cry, he collapsed upon the ground, defeated. His unconscious body lingered on the ground for a moment, then vanished without a trace. It was as if he never existed in the first place.

"Eris...," I whispered, having finally regained enough breath to speak. "Thank you. You saved me."

She turned to look over her shoulder and nodded. "No problem. Just stay right there. I'll get Ray; he should have recovered by now."

I watched her as she moved over to Ray and crouched next to him. _It's almost like she's a different person,_ I thought. _First, it was with the mightyena, and now, it's with that kabutops. What's up with her?_

"Ugh, that could have gone better," Ray complained. I shakily stood and glanced at Ray and Eris. Rebuffing Eris's assistance, he eventually steadied himself on his two legs, but I could tell that he was still disoriented from the kabutops's powerful Slash.

"Ray, are you okay?" I asked him worriedly.

"I'll be fine," he said.

His hostility only increased my worry more. "You sure? I mean, we can—"

" _I'm fine_ ," he snapped.

"Okay," I said almost as curtly as he did.

"We need to keep moving. You have the strength to stand by yourself, so you should be able to move fine," Eris said to Ray.

"I'd be finer if you could decide on what you're doing," he said stonily. "If you going to sit out, sit out; if you're going to join in, join in. Don't take the middle ground."

Oddly, instead of backing down, Eris said, "I joined when I could. Now, as I said, let's move forward."

She pat Ray on the back and marched to the far end of room, where a corridor led further into the dungeon. Ray and I exchanged a confused look, our previous argument forgotten.

"Does she usually do this?" he asked me.

"No. She's done this only once before when we last entered a Mystery Dungeon," I explained.

He followed Eris with his eyes. Then, he shrugged. "Hope it sticks," he said.

I gaped at him. _How could he not think this is weird?_ I thought. Before I could say just that, he strutted past me. I sighed in disappointment, then tailed after the two.

We stole down the next few corridors, more alert than ever for any unwanted surprises. We found another room, but it was a dead end. However, at the far end of the room, a staircase ascended into the sky. It grew hazier as it rose until I could not discern where it truly ended.

"Well, it looks like the seed wasn't on this floor," I concluded sadly. I had shifted to the front of our little line. "We still have the rest of the dungeon to search, though. We'll find it somehow."

I heard footsteps saunter from behind me. I expected that Ray, in his impatient style, would run past me and up the stairs. However, much to my surprise, Eris tromped past me and to the stairs, still appearing full of confidence and courage. She climbed the steps without looking back, then turned around when she realized that we were not following her. Patiently, she gestured towards us to follow her up the staircase as well.

In my shock, I glanced to Ray. Annoyingly, his face had reset itself into its typical blank slate, concealing his emotions. The only tell-tale that he was thinking deeply was that his paw was teasing his neck fur. When he noticed my glance, he turned to me and creased his eyebrows. I shrugged in response and heeded Eris's gesture.

I suddenly stopped when I realized what I was doing. Instead of me being the decision-making leader for my teammates, I was basically allowing them to call all of the shots for me. When I realized that, I felt somewhat incompetent as a leader.

Why did I let other people make decisions for me? Maybe I was too weak? Maybe I was too unsure of myself? I could not even scratch that kabutops when I fought him, and he trounced me far worse than he did Ray.

 _No! I can't think like that!_ I berated myself as I approached Eris. _I have to be strong for myself and my team. Nothing can hold me back from helping them. Nothing. Not even my doubts and fears. If I want to get something done, I have to step up and actually do it instead of thinking about why I haven't done it already._

When the three of us had assembled once more, we ascended the final steps into the sky. The characteristic darkness from changing floors obscured my vision; then, we unceremoniously were dumped on the second floor of the dungeon. Unlike the previous room in which we had landed on the first floor, this room held four openings into narrow corridors. Much of the sand had disappeared from the floor, replaced with sun-bleached brown rock.

On the floor in front of us laid a small heap of items. Ecstatic at our first discovery, I dashed over to the pile and dug into its contents. I separated an oran berry, a blast seed, and a rawst berry from each other. My heart sunk in disappointment at my identification of the blast seed.

 _Not a reviver seed. Oh well. Shouldn't get my hopes up about it. It would have been dumb luck if I had found it here,_ I concluded.

"No reviver seed!" I called out my findings to my team. "However, I did find a blast seed, an oran berry, and a rawst berry!"

"Nice. We didn't pick up any rawst berries at town, so we are now prepared for any burns we may receive," Eris stated. In a gentle act of courtesy, she gathered the items and stowed them in my treasure bag for me. Her actions raised many questions within me, and I could not hold back my tongue from asking some of them.

"Eris, are you feeling—" I stopped midsentence when I observed Eris once more. Her posture was not at all like how it was several seconds ago. Instead of standing erect and proud, her body slouched slightly, her tail hanging low to the ground.

"Um, Mona?" Eris asked timidly. "W-why...what...Why are you staring at me...like that?"

I stared at her, completely awe-struck. _She's...timid again?_ I realized. _Okay, this is too weird. I have to say something._

"Eris, what's going on? What happened back there?" I said.

"Back…there?" she said, puzzled. "I'm not sure—" Here she paused, gasping. "Wait, the kabutops! Ray! You! Did we—?"

"It's gone, Eris. _You_ beat it," I said slowly. Eris stared at me like I had grown two tails. She stared down at her hands, then grasped her tail.

"I don't—I don't remember that. Are you sure?" she whispered timidly.

"Yes, I'm sure. You saved me before that thing could knock me out. You were…pretty cool to be honest," I assured.

"Me…cool?" she said, the concept of the two words together utterly foreign.

"Could we save this for later? We're sitting ducklets right now," Ray interrupted.

"No, Ray, just—ugh. Alright, fine, but you and me, Eris, are going to have a _long_ talk when we get out of this dungeon," I said.

Eris did not look thrilled in the slightest. Honestly, neither was I. If something serious was going on, this could get really ugly really fast.

I pushed the issue to the back of my mind. Right now, I had to concentrate on the current task in front of me. I said that we were addressing this when we left, and I was going to hold myself to my word.

I turned to my attention back to the room. My gaze flicked thoughtfully between the room's four exits. Randomly selecting one, I pointed to my chosen corridor and marched into it. I heard Ray and Eris begin to follow me after a brief moment of silence.

We crawled through the dungeon slowly and methodically. When we entered a room, we searched for enemies, grabbed any items, and progressed to another corridor. Thankfully, we encountered no other enemies on the second floor and transitioned smoothly to the third floor, having acquired an additional rawst berry and some trivial amount of poké. However, we had not found the elusive reviver seed.

"Hey, have you guys noticed that the floor is getting rockier?" I asked Eris and Ray.

Ray brushed me off, but Eris responded, "I guess, but why do you, uh, ask?"

"I was thinking about it a little bit. What if the Mystery Dungeon is mimicking the outside world?" At Eris's confused expression, I elaborated, "What I mean to say is the Mystery Dungeon might be taking its features from the outside world in which it has direct contact. Remember what I said earlier about the sand? If the floor is losing sand, then must be going away from the beach."

"Which means…we're climbing up the cliff?" Eris finished.

"We might be. It would make sense," I said. I shrugged my shoulders at her; it was certainly an interesting theory. I mentally berated myself for not connecting the dots sooner.

"Let's focus on the reviver seed," Ray said, his tone still sour. I shook my head at him while his back was turned.

We continued wandering down the dungeon's corridors until we reached another room. This room contained the stairs to the fourth floor, but other corridors still branched from the sides of the room.

"Well, there's the stairs. We can finally move up," Ray said. He was about to begin climbing them when I stopped him with a paw.

"Wait, Ray," I said. "We can't go yet; we still have to explore the rest of this floor."

"The seed's not going to be here; we've been through most of the floor. We're going to waste our time checking through the rooms. If your theory is correct, that sun," he said, pointing to the sky, "follows the path of the sun in the real world. That means it's already almost noon, and we've barely explored the dungeon. We have to pick up the pace, or we'll most likely be searching in the dim light of dusk or, even worse, the dark shadows of night."

He did state a valid point. The sun had risen higher since we had entered the dungeon. However, I could not stand that we were leaving over half of the floor unexplored. The reviver seed had a chance of appearing in those areas, and to my knowledge, there was no way to return to a previous dungeon floor. I was not one to gamble so heavily on that large of a chance.

"Ray, we're staying and checking the rest of the floor," I stated authoritatively. "If you don't want to go with us, you can stay here and make sure that we don't get lost, alright?"

I could feel the irritation seeping through him. He did not say anything, instead opting to sit on the staircase and recline on the steps behind him.

"Why are you still here?" he snarled when we did not move to leave. "If you're going to search, then by all means, don't let me hold you back."

I could feel his gaze boring into my back as I turned to and entered the corridor on my left. Eris tried to follow me, but I turned to her and asked her to enter the other corridor. "We'll cover the floor quicker that way," I told her.

She twitched ever so slightly. "Um, what if I see a feral? What do I do then?" she stammered.

I internally sighed. I almost forgot about her fear of fighting after that whole episode with the kabutops. "If you encounter an enemy, run back here. I'm sure Ray would be kind enough to help you out in defeating whatever's hunting you," I said, shooting a knowing glare at Ray. He rolled his eyes in response.

Eris nodded happily, then jogged down the other corridor. Without having me to impede her, she could run much faster than if she still with me. I cursed my natural impediments and ventured down my own path.

Unfortunately, I only found one other room, and it contained nothing noteworthy aside from heaps of dull rocks and sparse patches of sand. Disheartened, I trekked back to the staircase room and reunited with Ray.

"Well? Did you find anything?" he scoffed.

I scorned at his haughty attitude, but nevertheless, I politely responded, "No. We'll have to see what Eris finds."

No sooner had I said those words than did Eris come charging into the room, cradling a shining seed in her hands.

"Hey, um, guys, I found it!" she shouted excitedly. Her "shouting" voice amounted to the normal volume of my voice. "I found the Reviver Seed!"

Ray and I simultaneous gawked her. "You found it?!" Ray exclaimed incredulously. Jumping down in front of Eris, he snatched the Seed from her hand and examined it critically.

"Wow. I'm bad at my seed identification, but even I can tell that's a reviver seed," he said. "Good. Now we don't have to look in every nook and cranny of this stupid dungeon anymore. Let's get out of here."

I walked to Ray and flicked open my treasure bag, gesturing to him to place the reviver seed into it. He dropped the seed into the bag without the slightest hesitation. I snapped my bag shut and motioned with my head towards the stairs. We moved towards and up the stairs to the next floor. As soon as we appeared on the next floor, three feral pokémon immediately surrounded us.

"Woah, watch out!" I shouted as a lileep lunged at me. Skillfully dodging its harried attack, I fired a Shadow Ball at its exposed backside. The pokémon tumbled forward and into a wall. As it was only at a primary stage of evolution, I knew that it should be much weaker than the kabutops we faced earlier.

My assumption proved to be correct when the lileep dropped from its suspended position in the wall, disappearing as it fell. I sighed in relief and glanced down at my detect band. _This is more useful than I thought it would be. With this band, combined with my small form, I can dodge almost anything, provided I'm not physically incapable of moving_ , I thought.

To my right, I heard a crash followed by a screech. I glanced over my shoulder and saw that Ray had easily defeated his feral, a shellder, which disappeared before my eyes. Eris, however, was cowering from her opponent, which was a small, yet menacing kabuto. Despite her obvious type advantage, Eris fled from the kabuto as if it could actually hurt her.

 _Knowing her, maybe it actually could_ , I thought, slightly amused.

Realizing that Eris would not help herself, I dug my paws into the ground and formed another Shadow Ball in my mouth, aiming for the kabuto's forehead. Just as I was about to release my attack, however, a blue blur flashed in between me and the feral and knocked it out of the room with a powerful, close-range move.

Ray dusted his paws off as the feral kabuto blinked from existence. I growled lowly at his interference. He faced me and raised a quizzical brow at my angered expression. "What? It's quicker if we just use attacks that have a type advantage. We waste less time that way," he said bluntly.

"That's not how battling works!" I fumed. "You're supposed to have a strategy when you fight. Your moves have to be carefully planned and executed so you don't risk taking more hits than you have to take. You can't just recklessly charge at your opponent!"

Ray scoffed at me. "That may be true of tougher opponents, but these things are weak. There isn't much thought to fighting them."

His statement irritated me immensely, clouding my judgment. "Well, that didn't work out so well for you last time, did it?" I retorted hotly.

"It's not like you did any better," he said.

His calm face infuriated me. "I'm trying here, Ray, which is more than I can say for you! Instead of thinking things through, you make hasty decisions and end up regretting them!" I shouted at him.

He glowered at me. Then, he sniffed disdainfully and walked toward one of the corridors. "We're wasting time here," he said, completely dismissing the argument.

My blood still pumped in my ears. "If that's how it is, fine. Let's get going, Eris. If anything, Ray's gonna get himself caught in another stupid situation that we'll have to rescue him from. Again," I said, my voice still emotionally wired.

When Eris and I rejoined Ray, we did not speak a word. I made sure to stay in the back of our line while Ray remained in the front. We silently progressed in this manner through the next four floors. Ray mostly dealt with any enemies that challenged us while I knocked out any feral pokémon that tried to approach us from behind.

While I disagreed with his fighting style, I did have to admit that it worked well in our situation. He quickly defeated the feral pokémon before they had a chance to land a blow on him. I was not going to tell him that anytime soon, however.

As we entered the eighth floor, I noticed something odd about the ground. "Hey, the sand's completely gone," I said aloud, speaking for the first time since the argument. Indeed, all the sand had disappeared. In its place laid a layer of hard, yet smooth sandstone. The walls themselves were less smooth than the previous floors, having more jagged edges and cracks.

A single long, narrow corridor, appearing very much like a crevice, extended from the room. Shadow shrouded its entrance, so I could not discern where the corridor ended or branched.

"This feels like the end, guys," I said solemnly. "Though, I don't like the look of that crevice..."

"Don't be silly. It's only a crevice," Ray reprimanded. Our emotional tensions had subsided over the past couple of floors. Honestly, I felt pretty horrible about what I had said earlier.

 _I should apologize to him_ , I thought. Before I could say anything, Ray disappeared into the rock. Deciding that I would say something later, I slowly crept towards the crevice and stared at it for several seconds. A ceiling of stone arched over the corridor, drenching it in a deep shadow. Even with my sharp hearing, I could not perceive a single sound in that shadowy corridor. Gulping nervously, I bravely stepped into the corridor.

The three of us walked in silence, focusing on maintaining our footing in the darkness of the corridor. Once, I stepped wrong, my foot snagging on a small dip in the rock. I stumbled forward several paces until I regained my footing.

"Mona, are you okay?" Eris whispered. Her voice echoed, making it seem far louder than its true volume.

"Yeah, I'm fine," I responded edgily. When I lifted my head upwards, I perceived a light in the near distance.

"Hey, I think I see an exit!" I called.

I ran forward, and the light grew steadily brighter. In the space of a minute, I reached the exit and burst out of the corridor. My flanks slightly heaving, I scanned the room into which we had emerged.

Large, squat boulders were scattered about the room. Their brown, shiny surfaces reflected the sunlight into our eyes, partially blinding us. At the far end of the room rose a staircase in a small alcove. I could only presume that it led to the dungeon's exit.

Something about the room unnerved me. Its uncanny silence scraped on my jittery nerves.

"Finally, the exit!" Ray exclaimed. His voice boomed like thunder in the quiet, boulder-filled room. "We can get out of here and deliver this stinking reviver seed to whoever wanted it."

He took off without warning into the room, jumping and weaving between the boulders. Anxious, I tailed after him, though at a much slower pace. I leapt on top of a boulder so that I could see where I was going. As I was scanning the area, I thought I saw a boulder shift.

 _What was that?_

I stared at the offending boulder. It did not move again, much to my curiosity.

 _Must've been imaging things._

I prepared to leap down from my perch when I spied more movement out of the corner of my eye. My head snapped towards another boulder, but again, it did not budge an inch.

 _Am I still seeing things?_

I stared harder at the second suspicious boulder. It was rather odd; instead of it being somewhat round, its shape formed a jagged, hooked ellipse. One end seemed like it had lost a large chunk, giving the rock a deformed appearance. It almost reminded me of the...

 _Wait a second..._

My gaze darted between the two boulders that I thought had moved. With horror, I realized that they had the exact same shape: the shape of the head of a kabutops.

 _It's a trap!_

"Ray, get out of there!" I screamed.

Skidding to stop, Ray looked over his shoulder questioningly. "Mona, I swear, if you have one more bad thing to say about me, I'll—"

His sentence was suddenly cut off when a thin object slammed into his side. The pure force behind it sent Ray crashing against one of the two odd boulders. That boulder abruptly launched Ray back into the air. He landed painfully on the ground, groaning and arching his back.

"No!" I cried, but it was too late. The two boulders surged upwards, revealing themselves to be two angry kabutops. I knew that their appearance could be no coincidence. These feral pokémon had coordinated a perfect ambush, and Ray was their prey.

I catapulted off my boulder and sprinted to Ray. Unfortunately, he had already reached the other side of the room. I could only watch as one kabutops tossed him away with a vicious Slash attack. His body tumbled across the room before it halted jarringly against a wall. Even from my distance, I could tell that he was unconscious.

"RAY!" I screamed. The two kabutops simultaneous glanced in my direction. My eyes widened as one kabutops summoned levitating rocks around him and launched them at me. I barely had time to dodge before the Ancient Power's rocks landed in the space I had just occupied.

 _I have to stay behind cover; it's my only advantage,_ I thought. _I can't survive in a head-on assault like I did with that other kabutops._

I ducked and weaved among the boulders, creating as much distance as I could between me and those kabutops' sharp blades. My feet padded as silently as they could to avoid detection. When I rounded one particular boulder, I nearly crashed into a green and tan object.

"Mona?!" Eris exclaimed, startled by my sudden appearance. She was crouching underneath the shade of one rock, gripping her tail close to her chest.

"Shhh!" I said, glancing behind me. Thankfully, the kabutops seemed to have not heard her outcry. I turned back to Eris and asked, "What are you doing here? Why are you hiding?"

Eris moved her eyes from me to the ground. "Um, well, I...I don't...," she quietly responded.

I sighed. "What about earlier when you nailed that kabutops with a Mach Punch? You were utterly fearless then. What's so different about now?"

Eris frowned, her face twisting in perplexity. She still did not look at me when she responded, "What do you mean? I'd never even... That sounds so scary, Mona. I've never done anything like that."

 _Whaaat?_ I thought. _How can she_ not _remember something like that?_

"Are you feeling okay, Eris?" I asked, finishing my question from before.

"Um, yeah," she replied.

Her explanation completely confused me, but currently, I was in no place to question her answer. We had bigger issues on our paws right now. I could bring the topic up later if or when we got out of this place.

"Okay, Eris, good to hear that, but we're still stuck between a rock and a hard place," I whispered.

"Do you have any ideas?" Eris asked me hopefully, finally raising her eyes to meet mine.

I sat in silence, not wanting to answer with the truth and crush her hopes. I had no plan. With Ray unconscious and Eris purposefully putting herself out of commission, I was outmatched against those kabutops. My head spun in circles, trying to formulate a plan in a seemingly hopeless situation.

 _We can't make it to the stairs without the kabutops catching up to us. Our only hope is to knock them out, but my only effective move, Dig, only allows me time to hit one kabutops. Those two are sticking together in a pair, so as soon as I attack one, the other will strike back with a vengeance._

While my mind churned in turmoil, I felt something stir within my heart. I glanced around the boulder again and saw Ray's crumpled body leaning haphazardly against the wall. In that limp position, he looked so helpless. The tugging in my heart grew stronger, and right then, I knew what I had to do.

A plan began to formulate in my mind upon choosing my decision. I quickly whispered it to Eris.

"That's really, really risky. You—?"

"Yes. Now go!" I said, dropping my treasure bag next to her.

I moved to jump on top of our hiding spot, but a hand landing on my shoulder stopped me.

"Wait, Mona. Are you, um, sure about this?" Eris questioned, doubt filling her eyes.

I nodded. "Yes, I'm positive. Now go! I know you can do this!"

Before she could respond, I hopped on top of the boulder. I had to trust that Eris could play her part; my plan hinged on it. Bracing myself, I shouted, "Hey, you looking for somebody? I'm over here, you ugly, ancient dingbats!"

My taunting immediately caught the kabutops' attention.

"Kreeeaaaheee!" they yelled angrily. While they could not understand my words, they seemed to have grasped my mocking tone. They clumsily charged through the boulders in an effort to reach me. When they drew close to me, I leapt from my perch and across other rocks to another boulder farther away.

"You're going to have to try harder than that!" I yelled, firing a Swift in their direction. I could not risk using a Shadow Ball since its kickback would knock me off the boulder.

From my vantage point, I saw Eris stealthily creeping between boulders and slowly making her way to Ray. _Yes, Eris! You're almost there!_ I thought.

"Kreeeaaah!" one kabutops yelled. Another Ancient Power formed around it and sailed straight towards me. Startled by its change in tactics, I barely had enough time to leap to another boulder and dodge the flying rocks.

 _I can't distract them for much longer. Eris, please hurry..._

I risked a glance in Ray's direction. I was startled to find he was gone, but my astonishment quickly morphed into hope. _Yes! She succeeded!_ I cheered in my head. _Now, I need to get out of their line of sight._

I jumped down from my boulder and dashed along the ground. The kabutops cried out in surprise when I vanished, but I knew that I would not stay hidden for long.

"Mona, here!" a voice called.

Checking to make sure I was still hidden, I twisted into the shadow of another boulder and found Eris crouching next to a slightly disoriented Ray. When he saw me, he whispered harshly, "Mona, why did you revive me?! We've failed our job now, and your stupid plan is half-baked."

I shook my head. "I couldn't leave you like that, Ray. There was no way we could have gotten out with you unconscious. We need your help to get out of here in one piece."

I could tell that my remark completely stunned him. His mouth opened and closed like a magikarp for several seconds. He eventually said, "W-well, I guess we have nothing better to do, so…"

Ray and Eris exchanged a glance, then they both nodded. "I still have my reservations, but I'll do it," Ray said. Eris vigorously shook her head in agreement.

On an unspoken cue, Eris ran out into the open while I dug into the ground with my Dig attack. Now the ground was comprised of solid rock instead of loose sand, I could tunnel without fearing that the ground above me would collapse. Ray followed me stealthily into the hole.

 _Okay, Eris, time for you to play the bait,_ I thought.

I closed my eyes, allowing my ears to guide me. Above me, I sensed light vibrations as if someone was carefully treading. Smiling, I curved left and sat in wait at the predetermined point of attack.

My ears caught the sound of a muffled shout, then several heavier vibrations reverberated in front of me. _Yes, yes, come closer...,_ I thought anxiously.

The vibrations drew steadily closer until they stopped right above me. I looked over my shoulder, trying, but failing, to see Ray in the darkness. I had to communicate with him, so I risked a low whisper.

"Ray, we're set. I'm going up...now!"

Ground-type energy pooled in my paws as I surged upwards, emerging under the feet of one kabutops. My super-charged paws impacted the feral's stomach. He screamed from the pure force of the impact.

"Now, Ray!" I commanded.

He needed no further prompting. Leaping from my tunnel, he attacked the other kabutops with one Force Palm. He landed and swiftly followed up my attack on the first kabutops with another Force Palm. The kabutops screeched in pain and fell back lifelessly onto the ground. He laid motionless, then vanished.

The second kabutops, upon seeing the disappearance of his comrade, shrieked in vengeance and charged blindly at Ray. Even though he was under threat of imminent attack, he did not flinch. One moment, the kabutops was bearing down on him; the next, he was tumbling like a doll across the rocky floor, his chest dented from the force of Ray's attack.

"That was...exhilarating," Ray breathed as the orange glow around his paw faded. "I could go for another round of that."

"Please...no...," a scared voice pleaded. I wheeled around to see Eris trembling on the ground.

"Oh, Eris, you did great," I cooed, running to her. "You were so brave, being the bait like that. We couldn't have done it without you."

"...Yeah, we probably could have...," Ray muttered under his breath.

I shot him a dark look, and he rolled his eyes in return. Sighing, I helped Eris to her feet. She still whimpered in fear, so I walked with her to the staircase to give her some measure of comfort. Now that the kabutops were gone, the path to the staircase seemed much clearer and more open.

When we entered the staircase's alcove, I noticed a small, strange box sitting at the base of the stairs. It shone a brilliant yellow under the sun, and its green trim provided an interesting accent color.

 _Is that a treasure chest?_ I asked myself. The box's curved head and distinctive lock only added further evidence that this box was, indeed, a treasure chest.

 _Hmm...we can open it later,_ I thought. The box's size made it relatively easy to insert into my Treasure Bag. Ray was eyeing the box hungrily as I placed it into my bag. Frowning slightly, I shrugged my bag back onto my shoulder and began climbing the stairs. Darkness swallowed my vision, and I felt myself being whisked away.

As quickly as it came, the darkness left. In its wake shone a bright light that blinded me as much as the darkness had. Adjusting to the light, I squinted my eyes and gasped in awe. A vast stretch of ocean, colored a strikingly deep blue, spanned across the horizon before me.

"We're out!" I exclaimed. "We made it through the dungeon, guys!"

Ray strode up next to me, his eyes partially closed against the sunlight. "Yeah, but we still failed our mission," he said regretfully. He stared out at the ocean, falling into silence.

I cocked my head at him even though he could not see me. "Ray, I'm—"

"Look, a way down," he suddenly said, pointing to a path. I followed the direction in which his finger pointed and spied a narrow, crooked path leading down from the top.

"Yeah, you're right," I agreed. I let his episode of silence slip by unheeded. "Let's head down."

Ray glanced at me out of the corner of his eye, yet he said nothing. Instead, he ambled toward the path and began picking his way down it. We followed after him.

We only took one hour to descend the cliffs. At the bottom, we rested and ate some apples and Oran Berries to regenerate our strength and satisfy our hunger. We resumed our journey home in the mid-afternoon. Once again, Eris decided to play in the waves, but this time, I joined her in her frolicking. The simple act of soaking in the water relieved the stress that had accumulated over the course of our dungeon exploration.

As I recollected over our time in the dungeon, I thought back to my argument with Ray. A heaviness settled in my heart when I recalled the harsh words I had said to him. In the heat of the moment, it had seemed appropriate, but now that I had time to reflect on it, my words were ugly and hurtful.

Admittedly, I could let my emotions guide me in moments where my rationale failed; however, one thing that I never failed to hold back was forgiveness. I learned from the times I had been bullied at school that, while actions may speak louder than words, words endure far longer than actions. People can dismiss words from their minds, but they can never truly remove them from their hearts.

I knew that I had to apologize to Ray.

Climbing out of the water, I approached Ray, who was reclining on a sand dune. His eyes were closed, yet I could tell that he was still wide awake.

"Hey, Ray," I said, sitting next to him.

He opened his eyes. After a moment, he replied, "What? I'm resting."

I almost wanted to drop the conversation right there and say that I just wanted to know if he was okay. However, I knew that what I was about to do was the right thing, so I steeled my nerves and said, "I want to apologize."

His eyes shot to me. Seeing as I had captured his attention, I continued, "I want to say sorry for what I said earlier. You do put some effort forth in this team. In truth, you saved us during that fight with those two kabutops because you were strong and fearless. Comparing your ability to one particular instance where you failed was wrong of me. Again, I'm sorry."

Ray stared at me for a minute, his face unreadable. Eventually, he looked towards the ocean. His hand reached up to pat his collar fur.

"Don't apologize," he said.

His response shocked me. "W-What?"

"I was the one who was knocked out back there. Not you. Not Eris," he said simply.

I sighed. "I guess that makes us even?"

"…Even," he said after a moment.

A massive weight disappeared off of my chest. Sighing at the new freedom, I glanced over at Ray. He had closed his eyes again, but his permanent frown seemed softer.

We sat there for several minutes. Eventually, I stood and shouted at Eris to come out of the ocean. She seemed depressed that she could not stay longer, but I told her that we had to go. Ray rose while I was talking to Eris. We trotted toward Treasure Town, leaving Eris to play catch-up.

After another hour of travel, Treasure Town broke over the horizon. In truth, I did not feel excited to return to town. I only felt dread and anxiety about what would happen when we had to return to town and, eventually, the guild. We would have to report our job outcome to the secretary of the guild, Alice, and I was not sure how she would receive our failure.

As far as I knew, we had no way of obtaining another reviver seed to try to fulfill our objective since we did not know where to find one, let alone afford it. We had to face the facts and tell the guild about our failure, whether we liked it or not.

Eris interrupted my thoughts. "Hey, what's that?" she asked curiously.

"What's what?" I inquired.

She pointed to the east entrance of town. An unusual amount of townspeople flocked about the field in front of the entrance. For a crowd of that magnitude, they appeared awfully quiet and immobile.

My brow creased in worry. "I wonder what's up. Guess we should go see, huh?"

We changed our trajectory from the north entrance of town to the eastern entrance and the crowd. The closer we were positioned to the crowd, the more eerie the situation appeared to be. A tense atmosphere lingered in the air. The townspeople all faced a point in the middle of themselves, and they were muttering darkly.

When we reached the edge of the crowd, my keen ears picked up on some of the whispers.

"They're just lying there. I don't think they're moving."

"What do you think happened to them?"

"I don't know, but that combusken and luxio don't look too good. I think someone sent for a medic or someone like that."

"Did you hear about that message, too? It sends shivers down my spine every time I think about it!"

"I dunno, man, but it can't mean anything good at all..."

My eyes widened. _Wait a second. A combusken and a luxio are lying unconscious on the ground? It can't be... No way...!_

Without thinking, I dove into the crowd. Ignoring Eris's cry to stop, I wove in between the feet and paws around me. My mind looped in a spiral of thoughts, which all centered on the information I had just heard. I reeled in disbelief, but I had to make sure. I had to know if what I thought was true.

Thanks to my size, I reached the center of the crowd quickly. I squeezed my head between two burly pokémon and froze at the sight before me.

 _No... This can't be. This can't be happening,_ I thought crazily.

My hearbeat throbbed loudly in my ears. All sounded faded away. Despite what my heart wanted to believe, my eyes told me the undisputable truth.

There, lying unconscious and heavily wounded on the ground before me, were Kyle and Zane. A message, written in dark gray ashes, ominously surrounded them.

 _"This is only the beginning. The war has begun."_

* * *

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	10. Chapter 9: Deeper into the Mire

**\- Chapter 9: Deeper into the Mire -**

As I stared at the two pokémon that I had known for most of my life, only a single emotion coursed through me: utter horror. It simmered in the depths of my soul, burning straight through my heart to the pit of my stomach.

 _This can't be real._

My heart thumped loudly in my chest. My breath staggered erratically in and out of my lungs. My emotions nearly shattered at the mere sight of them.

 _How did this h-happen to them?_

They were too gruesome. Seeing the sheer amounts of cuts and bleeding and— _was that bone?!_ One of Kyle's arms was clearly broken. Was a luxio's tail supposed to bend like that?

 _No, no, holy Arceus—!_

I could not tell if they even breathed. All of my hatred for Zane and all of my ambivalence for Kyle drenched itself in a concern so terrifying that I could only focus on one thought.

 _Are they dead? They…no. But they're not moving._

Tears welled up in my eyes. There was so much blood. They looked like broken toys that had been discarded. _They're really…_

"Clear a path! Clear a path! Make way for the paramedics! Clear a path!"

My head instinctively lifted at the sound of the voice commanding the crowd to part. The voice repeated its message again, and the crowd parted, creating a direct pathway to center. Pokémon dressed in white coats flooded into the small clearing. Two pairs of the white-clad pokémon each carried a woven stretcher and a white blanket.

An audino immediately rushed to Kyle and Zane. He laid a hand on Kyle while simultaneously wrapping his other hand around a feeler that dangled from his ear. He paused momentarily before repeating the same process with Zane. No one in the crowd spoke.

The audino lifted his hand from Zane's chest, sighing deeply. "They're alive," he said in a relieved tone, "but they're not going to be for much longer. Get these two onto the stretchers and run them back as fast as you can!"

At the audino's command, the paramedics lifted Kyle and Zane onto separate stretchers. As soon as they were secured, the medics sprinted through the crowd and towards what I presumed was the nearest hospital in town.

"Everyone, you must leave the scene now," the same voice from earlier shouted. "This is now a crime scene! I repeat, you must leave now."

Still positioned near the center of the crowd, I watched as a tall chesnaught marched into the space the medics vacated. Her green, spiky arms were tensed, and her tan body armor gleamed dangerously in the afternoon sunlight.

"Please leave the area now. This is a crime scene!" the chesnaught repeated.

While the crowd, one by one, migrated away from the two pokémon and the foreboding message, my paws remained rooted to the ground. A momentous despair simmered within me.

 _Why am I losing everyone near me?_

I could not care less how much Zane hurt me in the past. As much as I had felt the urge to hurt him back after all those years, he never deserved this. Kyle never deserved this. Lucy never—

"Eevee! Please follow everyone into the city," the chesnaught said. His voice had a softer tone to it. I must look like a wreck, what with the tears streaking down my face and my legs shaking like earthquakes.

"I—I knew t-them," I choked out.

The chesnaught, who had been advancing on me, halted. His fingers clicked together thoughtfully; the spines on his arms relaxed.

"You knew them?" he repeated of me.

My throat now too constricted to respond, I merely nodded. Sighing and rubbing, her face, the chesnaught looked around her for a moment. She eventually returned her focus to me and pointed to the left of the town's entrance.

"Stand over there. Some detectives will be coming by to speak with you," he said. He laid a comforting hand on my shoulder and patted me a couple of times like I was a little kit.

I did not mind being treated like a little kit at this point. Following his directions, I trudged toward the indication destination. I refused to glance over my shoulder even once. When I reached the spot, I slumped onto my belly and buried my head in my paws. The sobs I had struggled for so long to contain now poured out from me like a flood, wracking my chest and sides.

The sound of footsteps walking toward me dragged me partly out of my misery. Raising my head, my blurry vision picked out two pokémon approaching me: a manectric and a lombre. In particular, the manectric exuded an authoritative aura.

The manectric and lombre halted next to me. Judgingly, the manectric scrutinized me. "Are you the one Officer Cliff told us about?" she asked. Her voice hummed with a soprano overtone. The lombre merely stood silently behind her, holding what appeared to be a booklet full of paper in one hand and a levi-pen in the other.

"Who's C-Cliff?" I asked shakily. Wiping my eyes, I straightened myself into a sitting position and tried to regain some of my dignity.

"The chesnaught," the manetric responded.

"Oh, yeah. I-I met him-m," I said.

"Your name?"

"M-Mona."

The manectric gestured her head towards the lombre, who then casually opened his booklet and levitated the levi-pen over the paper. After jotting down a few short sentences, he looked at the manectric expectantly.

The manectric blinked and turned back to me. "Okay, Mona, my name is Detective Jane, and this is my partner, Detective Pads. I'm going to ask you a few questions about what happened here, and my partner will write down what you say. Alright?"

Speechless, I simply nodded.

"Okay, then. First question: when did you arrive to the scene?" Jane asked.

"Fifteen minutes ago."

Pads rapidly copied what I said on his paper. When he confirmed that he had written my exact words, she continued, "Very well. As you were approaching the scene, did you notice anything unusual?"

I blinked. _Unusual? Besides my friends lying dead on the ground?_

"There was a strange message on the ground," I replied with an obnoxious sniff.

Jane sighed exasperatedly. "Other than the scene itself," she elaborated.

I frowned. "W-Well, besides the crowd? Um, no, I didn't see anything unusual."

It was the Jane's turn to frown. "Alright," she muttered. She paused as Pads scribbled on his booklet. After he finished, she asked, "I heard from Officer Cliff that you know the two victims in this crime. Care to tell us about them?"

I paused momentarily. _She doesn't need to know everything. It's not like it's her business,_ I thought.

"Their names are…Kyle and Zane. I've known them since I—I was a kit. Kyle was—is shy but strong," I said, sick at myself for using past tense, "and Zane is really…confident. Mean, too, I guess."

"Okay. Now, one last question. When was the last time you saw Kyle and Zane before they were severely injured?" Jane asked me, her voice acquiring a stern tone.

Sniffing again, I blurted, "I saw Kyle at graduation. Zane was missing…until now."

Pads's Levi-pen furiously copied what I said. Jane glanced over at his paper, nodded to herself, and returned her gaze to me.

"Thank you for your time and information, Mona. If you ever have to contact us, come to the Sunrise Police Station. I'm sorry about them. I hope they recover," she politely barked.

She smiled lightly, then turned to leave. As if realizing something, she halted mid-turn and faced me again. "Oh, I forgot to ask. I couldn't help but notice the badge on your chest. What is your exploration team and guild? It could help us in contacting you if we need further information."

"Oh, it's Team Advent," I responded quickly. I wanted her to be gone; my emotions could hardly handle company any longer.

"Team Advent? Interesting name. Again, just be on lookout for any news from me or my fellow officers. If you want to visit they, I believe they are at Sunrise Hospital," she said. She gestured to Pads, who had shut his booklet and tucked the levi-pen into its binding, and they entered into the city.

I watched them pad back into the city. Slumping, I hung my head.

 _I just came back from my first failed job in a Mystery Dungeon_ , I thought, _and if things couldn't get any worse, I find two pokémon that I've seen for most of my life lying half-dead on the ground next to Treasure Town. What the heck is going on with my life right now? What even just...happened?_

"Mona...?" a voice whispered tenderly.

Blearily, I raised my head. Deep brown eyes filled my vision.

"Waah!" I cried, starting. "Eris, don't do that to me!"

"Sorry, Mona," Eris apologized softly.

I sighed and shook my head. "No, no, it's fine, Eris," I croaked.

"Arceus, you look like a wreck," Ray commented, poking his head around Eris. His arms were crossed, the fingers of his right hand tapping his left bicep. Eris seemed to finally notice my tear-streaked face; her attitude shifted into outright concern.

"Mona, what happened? Why d-did you run off?" she asked.

"I…," I started to say, but my throat constricted. Taking a deep breath to relax it, I continued, "Eris, I saw Zane and Kyle."

She tilted her head at me. "Oh, really? Uh, when did they come to Treasure Town?"

"They were nearly dead."

Eris froze, her mouth dangling open. Ray raised his eyebrows at me.

"D-D-Dead?!" Eris sputtered.

"…Yeah. They had this…this _message_ around them: 'This is only the beginning. The war has begun,'" I said. I wiped my eyes and stood. Now that I had some time to process, my mood was calming—enough to regain my composure.

"The heck?" Ray said, uncrossing his arms.

"It was written in ashes, too," I added.

"…Freaky," Eris breathed.

"Freaky? This is horrible!" I said, my emotions detonating again. "How could this happen again to people I know?! First it was Lucy, and now—"

I bit back my words, snapping my head to the side. Eris bit her lip, appearing unsure of what to say. Ray glanced back and forth between us, his eyebrows creasing. The tension steadily mounted.

"Alright," he finally said. "Let's just head back to the guild. You can fill us in as we go."

* * *

"…and that's when those detectives left," I concluded.

"I c-can't believe that Kyle and Zane were…," Eris whimpered.

The shadow of the guild cast itself over us. We had gathered right next to the gate, Ray relaxing against the wall. My paws pattered on the ground; my body still felt wired from earlier.

"I just want to know who did it," I said to her.

"I have no idea," Eris said. Ray, while we were speaking, strode in front of the gate and shouted up to Walter to let us in. As the gate rumbling upward, he motioned for us to come inside after him.

After a moment of silence, Eris said, "Hey, we, um, have to t-turn in our thing, right?"

"Ugh, yeah," Ray grunted, rubbing his face grimly.

Her statement awkwardly ended our conversation, but nonetheless, we had to do our job. With Ray walking ahead of me and Eris beside me, we crossed the hall and entered into a hallway on the far left. Entering into the offices on the right side of that hallway, a flurry of harried pokémon greeted us. Several pokémon were busily writing on stacks of papers and scrolls. Messengers in white hats with matching white bags darted in between the rows of desks, exchanging papers before running out one of several doors.

We navigated the maze of desks to a blue door near the back. When we reached the door, I noticed that a tiny, golden plate rested on the door frame. It read: "Chief Secretary Alice's Office".

"Well, here goes," I said. I tentatively raised a forepaw and knocked on the door.

"Come in," a voice lightly chirped.

Thankfully, the door opened by sliding and not by turning a handle, so I slid the door to the right and walked into the office. A blue pokémon engulfed in fluffy feathers rested primly on a nest-like chair. In front of her laid a wooden desk, its top barely rising to the bottom of her wide chair. Several ink pots dotted the surface of the desk next to heaps of papers. Multiple filing cabinets lined the wall behind her.

"Ah, you three. Hello again," Alice greeted.

"Hello, Mrs. Alice," I greeted back. "We're here to report our job outcome."

"Very well," she said. One of Alice's legs emerged from under her cloud-like feathers and flicked through the papers on her desk. I noticed that, though her talons were ink-stained, they did not leave any marks on her papers.

"You know, you guys have stirred up a little gossip here," she commented idly. "Some of the teams here are talking about how you know Team Crescent."

"R-Really?" Eris asked.

"Mm-hmm. A _very_ small number of people know much about them. Even I don't know much myself. They like to keep to themselves," she said.

 _Keep to themselves?_ I thought. Mr. Ace, while he was rather stand-offish at school, never really withheld himself much from the students. He personally involved himself in the dungeon exploration, often siding with one or more teams during some of our drills.

 _How much do I really know about him?_ I pondered.

"Hum. Anyway, may I see your job request?" Alice asked. Obliging, Eris reached into my treasure bag and pulled out the rolled-up document. She handed it to the altaria, who rolled it out on her desk. Her talons stopped flipping through the pages upon reaching a blank one. She set a paperweight on the edge of the page. Dipping a talon in one of several inkpots on her desk, she hurriedly scratched out some sentences on the blank page.

"Now, may I please see the reviver seed?" she asked. She proffered a talon, staring at me expectantly.

I gulped nervously. "We...didn't exactly get the item we needed to," I said slowly.

Her eyes pierced mine coldly. "You mean to say that you failed your very first job?" she asked scathingly.

I winced at her tone and hung my head. "Yes, ma'am. We...failed our first job."

She stared at us for a moment, an almost sad gleam in her eyes before she wrote several lines of text on the page.

"Tut tut. I'm very sorry to hear that," she consoled. "However, I still have to give out the due punishment, regardless of your newbie status."

I gulped nervously. I did not like the sound of "punishment".

"What d'ya mean?" Ray asked, fingering his neck fur.

She tapped a talon that was not recently covered in ink on her desk. She then continued to write on the page. Her silence grated on my nerves, but I waited for her to speak.

Eventually, she finished with whatever she was writing on her page. Looking up at me, she said, "Your punishment, as per guild regulations, is a reduction in the amount of payment you shall receive for your job."

My mouth dropped open. "No way."

She nodded sagely. "Yes, dears. Time is money, after all, and our clients expect a speedy delivery of their requested items. It's the only way we can compensate for the delay in their item's arrival."

Unable to continue holding eye contact, my head lowered to my chest. "Oh," I said in a small voice. "Is that all?"

Alice shook her head. "Sorry, but that's not all. The rank points you receive for completing this job are halved as well."

I grimaced. From my studies, I had learned that rank points were given to exploration teams after completing a job. Rank points were the easiest way to track a team's inherent skill. If an exploration team acquired enough rank points, they could take a test to advance to the next exploration rank.

Glancing down at my explorer's badge, I saw that a pink gem was inlaid in its center, denoting that our exploration rank was only at the Normal Rank, the lowest level.

 _We didn't do ourselves any favors by failing this job. We've just made it harder on ourselves to advance,_ I thought, depressed.

Alice wiped her ink-covered talon on a cloth that laid on the corner of her desk. She slid the job request document closer to her with her semi-dry talon. I watched anxiously as she bent her neck to close the paper and skimmed over the job description.

"I see. This is only an E-rank job. You won't lose that many rank points since you wouldn't have gained much in the first place," she said. "Still, I have to notate that you have failed this job. Any subsequent failures must be reported to me; if you succeed, you must bring the item and job request back to me. Any questions?"

I did have one question, but I was afraid of how she would answer it. "Alice, what would happen if we used the item that the job asked for?"

Alice froze in her seat, an expression of shock on her face. Her talons hung suspended in the air. A stray drop of ink dangled on the edge of one of her talons, then separated from the tip and splashed onto the desk.

"You...what...," she sputtered. Her eyes locked onto mine in wonder. She then whispered, "In all my years of working as a secretary, never have I come across a situation like this. Please, tell me how this came to be."

Reluctantly, I shared the story of our exploration of Seacoast Cliffs. I told her about the first kabutops fight on the dungeon's first floor. I skipped most of the details in between to the fight against the kabutops duo on the final floor. As I explained about the kabutops ambushing and knocking out Ray, the riolu's paw began to twist his collar fur, a withering gaze radiating from his eyes. I finished with saying that I had used the reviver seed to revive Ray so that we could beat the kabutops and escape relatively unharmed.

Alice did not interrupt me as I explained the reasoning behind me using the reviver seed. When I had finished, she did not appear angry as I thought she would. Instead, a smile graced her gentle features.

"You are a very noble pokémon, Mona," she praised. "I don't know many who would forgo their jobs for the sake of their friend's safety."

I felt a blush creeping onto my cheeks. _She thinks I'm noble?_ I thought in disbelief. _I was just doing what I thought should be done._

"I can't assure you with the fact that you'll find another reviver seed. However, I wouldn't give up hope; you may just find the means to acquire another one," she stated hopefully. "I can give you one useful suggestion, however: get some rest. Not to offend you, but you three look horrible. Anybody would be exhausted after going through what you three did."

I could not help but agree with her. My eyelids threatened to close of their own volition, and my entire body ached from the beating I received at the blades of those kabutops.

"You can say that again," Ray grunted.

She chuckled lightly. "Now, I've held you long enough. I should've already been on my dinner break, so shoo! Go get some food and rest."

To emphasize her point, she pointed with her talons towards the door and waved good-bye. I smiled and turned to leave, but I suddenly remembered a question that I had desperately wanted answered.

"Ma'am, I have to ask you one question before I go," I said, facing Alice once more.

"What is it, dear?"

"Do you know of any hospitals close to Treasure Town's eastern entrance?"

She paused in thought, her talons rapping sharply on the desk. "The only place I know is Sunrise Hospital on Main Street."

My smile broadened. "Thanks, Alice."

She smiled in return. "You're welcome, dear."

Keeping my smile plastered to my face, I slid the door open and exited her office, Ray and Eris following quietly. When I had shut the door, I groaned and sunk onto the ground.

"I'm so sorry, guys. I didn't think me using that reviver seed would be so bad," I apologized.

While Ray simmered in silence, Eris crouched and patted me on the shoulder. "It's, um, okay, Mona. It really is," she comforted.

I tried to smile, but I could not fake one again. I merely said, "Thank, Eris. I still messed up, though."

Standing, I shook the dust out of my fur. My legs quaked violently from the effort. _I really am tired,_ I thought. _I could use a nap._

"You guys just wanna go back our quarters? I'm beat," I asked.

Eris nodded wearily, her exhaustion more than evident.

"I'm getting food. I'll get something for you guys, too," Ray said. He appeared rather fresh despite the events of today.

 _He doesn't show his exhaustion as obviously as we do. Must be a riolu thing_ , I observed.

We trudged out of the offices and down the staircase. At the bottom, Ray headed down to the mess hall, where I could smell the food even from this far away. Eris and I headed to our right and through the double doors to the members' hall. Climbing up the stairwell, we reached our room and gratefully opened the door.

Eris sighed deeply as she crashed onto her straw bed, curling into a tight ball. I opted to set my treasure bag onto a chair at the table and relax onto another chair. As I reclined, my eyes roved around the room, properly observing it for the first time.

From the tiny crack of light shining from underneath the door, I saw the large cabinet that I had noticed on my first day here sitting in the back right corner of the room. A long, wooden counter-top was attached to the left wall. A series of shelves dominated the wall space above the counter, and a line of smaller cabinets filled the space under the counter. A candle rested on each end of the counter and in the center of the table. A box of matchsticks laid next to the candle on the table.

 _I could use a little light right now,_ I decided. Reaching out with a forepaw, I latched my claws onto the edge of the box of matchsticks and dragged it closer to me. Tearing open the bag, my claws punched through a matchstick and pulled it out of the box. My mouth gently grabbed the end of the matchstick.

Using one forepaw to hold the box steady, I struck the end of the matchstick against the rough end of the box. It lit with a soft, orange flame. Holding my breath so that smoke did not enter my lungs, I held the tiny flame up to the candlewick until it lit as well. Then, I exhaled deeply, extinguishing the matchstick's flame.

I spat the used matchstick onto the table, then rested my chin on the table's edge. My eyes stared into the flickering flame. As time passed, my mind slowly began to unravel. For the first time that day, I was relatively calm.

My peaceful mind reflected on today's events. I had received a tour of the guild, gotten my first job, explored my third Mystery Dungeon, failed my first job, seen Kyle and Zane collapsed in front of Treasure Town, been interviewed by two detectives, and returned to the guild all before dinnertime.

 _Today couldn't have gone much worse_ , I thought with a dry humor. Absently, I ran my paw over the table's smooth surface.

 _Should I have chosen being an explorer? Honestly, though, I don't regret my decision. This is a just a little bump in the road; that's all._

My paw slid from the table and onto the chair.

 _I'm worried for Zane and Kyle. Who would do that to them? I mean, anybody who does that to them is some sick jerk. I hope those police people, or anybody really, finds the pokémon that did it and catches him or her._

As I thought about Zane and Kyle, memories of being in school with them surfaced in my mind.

I saw Kyle, then only a torchic, when he first entered the school. The school had recently opened and only consisted of two tiny classrooms. He always sat in the back of the classroom and kept to himself. I remember judging him as a hopeless nobody by his lack of socialization. My opinion of him did not change until we both reached our third year in the school. That year was the first year the school implemented a battle class.

In that class, he fought me in his first match. While that match only served to acquaintance the both of us to fighting, he forced me into submission in under one minute, completely surprising everyone in the class.

However, his fighting talent was not what stunned me the most about him. Though he could have gloated about his victory over me, he instead helped me stand on my paws and congratulated me on a fight well fought.

After that day, my outlook on him changed. I still viewed him as distant, yet I could not forget the battle prowess and inherent chivalry he displayed after our first fight. Even when he evolved and when I became known as the school outcast, he never treated me any differently than before I had that label so ungraciously slapped on me.

My memories unwillingly shifted to those of Zane, and I felt my stomach twist into knots. Zane had also entered the then-new school with me. As a shinx, he had acted relatively respectfully. I guess it had something to do with his father being the head of the local tribe.

As time passed, however, he changed. He evolved in his first year, the typical evolution time for bug types, not electric types. My parents always had told me that those who evolve too early in their lives usually were not able to handle their newfound power very well. I never really believed them until I had witnessed Zane's blinding change in behavior. His new, nasty attitude had been part of the reason that I had waited until my fourth year to try to evolve—the year I discovered that I actually could not do so.

When my third year rolled around, pretty much everyone in my grade had evolved at least once—a spewpa actually evolved into a vivillon near the end of the year. Lucy had invited me over in the winter to watch her evolve into a glaceon. Judging by that, I should have had a great year, but that year was also the year that Zane started bullying me.

By the fourth year, my role as the school outcast had been cemented. However, like a cruel twist of fate, that was also the year that I saved Zane's life.

I vividly remembered that eventful day. That day had been during mid-spring. School had ended for the day, and I had decided to walk home on a different route directly through the forest to see if I would arrive home faster. While I had struggled to drag my unwieldy lunch box through the underbrush, I reached a small creek.

Thirsty from my hike, I had set my burden on the ground and prepared to crawl through the underbrush when I spotted Zane reclining on the bank.

His presence had startled me so much that I ducked back into the bushes. I stared at him, not moving an inch. Zane had only gazed at the water tensely as if anticipating a giant feraligatr to leap from the water and devour him whole.

I had given up hope on waiting for him to leave when he abruptly stood. Slowly and carefully, he slunk down the bank until his paws brushed the edge of the water. I had watched with bated breath as he dipped a paw in the water.

A second passed, then Zane yanked his paw out of the water with a yowl. Hunching like a frightened poochyena, he limped from the water's edge and rung out his paw.

I had been shocked to behold such behavior from Zane, who I had seen as hardened and without much fear of anything. I felt as if I had witnessed a private moment.

I had seen Zane's greatest fear: the water.

Hastily retreating from the edge of the underbrush, I moved to grab my container and run away when I heard a loud screech and a heavy splash from the creek's direction. Forgetting my fear, I had sprung from the bushes to discover what had happened.

Zane had fallen into the creek; I could tell from the gouges in the wet mud where Zane had stood moments before. He had flailed in the water, desperately trying to swim to the bank. However, rain had recently fallen, and the creek had swollen, its water moving rapidly downstream.

Zane had struggled to grab a branch to anchor himself, but every branch he had tried to snag was just out of his reach. He then yowled, a cry full of the terror one has when faced with imminent, unavoidable death. He was searching for something—someone—to save him.

I knew nobody could come and save him. Nobody but me.

As Zane had drifted downstream, I searched for anything that could save him before he drowned. Luckily, a dead tree, its girth massive in size, was hanging over the creek.

With Zane's quieting cries driving me, I had Tackled the tree until it cracked in its base. Gravity then took over for me, and the tree tumbled into the water below. Both ends lodged themselves in the mud, forming a bridge over the creek.

Zane had smacked into the tree trunk and dug his claws into its dead bark. His chest had risen and fallen rapidly. His paws had trembled as they held his body in place.

After several minutes of motionlessness, he had raised his head and swung it side to side to spot who had saved him. By then, however, I had hidden myself well behind the cover of the undergrowth. Zane had puffed out a breath, then had clambered onto the truck. He bounded onto the bank—the same side that I was on—and pulled himself up the last bit of slope.

Before he left the creek-side, however, he had halted, his eyes fixed on a point in the distance. I had silently followed his gaze, and my breath had caught when I realized at what he was staring: my lunch box. It had shone brightly in the sun, unmistakable even to the unwary eye.

Zane's eyes had narrowed, and he peered around him carefully. I shrunk back against the earth, grateful for the first time for my diminutive stature and dull, earthy fur. I was also fortunate that Zane had not yet evolved into a luxray, for he would have spotted me in an instant with the luxray's see-through vision.

Seemingly satisfied that he was alone, Zane had wandered off into the woods. I did not move until he had been gone for a long time. Carefully, I had picked my way over to my lunch box, grabbed it, and toted it back to my house. That night, I had applied a new coat of paint to make sure that Zane would not be able to tell that I—the loner, the outcast—had saved his life.

My mind withdrew from its inner memories as I noticed that the candle, already short, was running low. Abstractly, I tapped my claws on the table. _Don't go all sympathetic for him, now, Mona. He's given you more than enough of a hard time to make your act seem unworthy,_ I scolded myself.

Something thumped on the door; then, it swung open. Ray entered into the room, toting a wooden box. He kicked the door shut with his foot, saying, "I have food."

"Food? Where…? In the box?" I asked, jumping off my chair.

"Where else?" Ray said. He ambled over to the table and, setting the box on it, pulled off one of the sides. Inside the box were three racks, each containing a steaming plate of scrumptious edibles.

"You got it to-go? Neat," I praised.

"They're letting us keep the box, too," Ray added. He withdrew the plate and set of silverware from the top rack, leaving me to choose between the remaining two.

"Hey, Eris, you coming?" I asked Eris. She did not budge from her bed, instead twitching rather oddly. I frowned at her as she muttered something under her breath.

"Eris, heh, c'mon. Wake up!" I said. I walked over to her and shook her roughly. Her eyes snapped open, and she recoiled from me.

"Woah, good morning to you, too," I said, raising my paws.

"Ugh, what is it?" she said, sounding irritated.

"Just…dinner," I said. Her behavior freaked me out a little bit. Never before had I seen her act so rude.

"Oh, really?" she said, perking. She quickly leapt off her bed and darted to the table. Grabbing a plate and silverware set, she hopped onto one of the chairs and gazed expectantly at me.

"Well, alright, then," I laughed. As I jumped onto the last chair, Eris pulled over my dinner for me. She pushed the box to the far side of the table. While they dug immediately into their meals, I quickly said a prayer before digging into mine.

After passing the first few minutes in silence, Ray said, "It's too dark in here. I'm opening the door."

"So, Ray, did you hear anything about the incident down in mess hall?" I asked.

"Yes, actually," he answered as he cracked open the door a smidge. "An emboar announced that the east exit is closed to all traffic. You go there, and you get arrested."

"They probably did that to preserve the message on the ground," I deduced.

 _This is only the beginning. The war has begun._

"That message w-w-was creepy," Eris said, trembling. "So creepy..."

I sat in silence. The more I thought about the message, the more familiar it seemed. Then, it clicked.

 ** _"This is only the beginning."_**

 _I've heard that before!_ I realized.

"Guys, I think I know who did it," I said solemnly.

Ray gestured with his paw. "Well, spill."

"Shroud."

Eris gasped. "You...you think so?" she squealed.

Ray's brow creased. "He's the guy who set fire to your school, right?"

"And nearly killed me," I added, "which is why I'm so confused. Why didn't he kill Kyle or Zane? What makes this scenario different?"

Ray opened his mouth, then shut it. It appeared that he was stumped as well.

As we both struggled to answer the question, Eris offered, "Maybe...we shouldn't focus on who did it...and more on the message itself."

"Why do you say that?" I asked.

She stared shyly at the table. I almost thought she would not speak, but she answered my question by saying, "W-well, you said it yourself. _'The war has begun.'_ If Shroud did this, then maybe he's, um, setting some sort of plan in motion."

I shook my head. "What sensible person would announce their plans?" I said in disagreement. I sighed and hung my head. "He can't just start a war! He's only one person; it's suicide, no matter how strong he is. It just doesn't make sense."

"None of this makes sense," Ray stated bluntly. "The more we try to make sense of it, the less sense it makes." Finishing his meal, he set his fork and knife on his plate.

"That's why I'm heading to the library tomorrow," I said.

"You're heading to the library to find out about the vague ramblings of some crook?" Ray asked, sounding, for once, actually confused.

I shook my head. My head had run farther ahead than the actual pace of the conversation. "Sorry, I was just remembering how I heard the guildmaster and Team Crescent talking about some Ruins of Eld. They said that Shroud was interested in it, so I thought that maybe I could find something about it in the library. You guys wanna come with me?"

 _Plus, I want to figure out what Mr. Ace really could know._

"No thanks," Ray said immediately.

"Oh! Um, sure, I guess I'll go with you," Eris replied. "Shouldn't we, uh, you know, take another job, though?"

Before I could consider her question, a knock sounded at the door. We looked at each other in confusion; why knock if the door was cracked open?

Apparently, the visitor realized this, too, because he said, "I'm sorry if I'm bothering you. I know the door is open, but I don't want to barge in. I have a message to deliver."

 _A message? For us?_ I thought. Hopping off of my seat, I trotted over to the door and nudged it fully open. A growlithe in a white cap waited outside of my door. A white bag hung loosely from his shoulder.

"Hey, you're that growlithe from before. It's Blaze, right?" I said, recognizing him from when he delivered a message to the guildmaster during my team's interview.

"Yes, I'm Blaze! I'm surprised you remember me. Not a lot of people do," Blaze said happily. "Now, I bring news from the guildmaster himself."

My eyes widened in shock. "Oh. What does he want from us?"

He puffed out his chest as if he was proud to deliver the message. "The guildmaster has requested that you and your team come see him at once."

* * *

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	11. Chapter 10: Reunion

**\- Chapter 10: Reunion -**

I froze in surprise as I processed Blaze's words. For a reason that I could not fathom, Gundabad desired our presence—at a very late hour, no less.

 _Why would he want us to come to him? Did we commit some wrong that demanded his recourse?_

"Did he say why?" I asked Blaze, unable to withhold my mounting anxiety from my voice.

Unfortunately, Blaze shook his head. "Gundabad usually never tells me why he wants me to fetch pokémon for him, and I never ask. Sorry!"

 _Dangit. I really hoped he knew. Now I just have to hope that Gundabad doesn't want us for anything bad,_ I told myself.

"That's fine. Just lead us down," I said to him. Blaze nodded and bounced lightly across the balcony to the stairs.

"What does that geezer want with us?" Ray asked rhetorically.

"No clue. Something important if he wants us so badly," I responded. _And here I was looking forward to falling asleep in my nice, cozy bed._

"Please follow me!" Blaze called energetically.

I had to egg Ray to get him to come, but nevertheless, we tailed after him. After walking down the spiral staircase and out the exit door on the right, we entered into the Grand Hall. Compared to earlier this evening, the hall appeared empty. Only a few pokémon roamed the area.

At the end of the hall, Blaze rapped on the guildmaster's door. "Guildmaster, I've brought you Team Advent," he announced.

"Let them in," the guildmaster's gruff voice commanded.

Cheerfully, Blaze ducked in through the well-disguised flap at the bottom of the door. I tried to follow him, but the flap oddly refused to budge, no matter how hard I pushed on it.

"The flap only opens for messengers!" Blaze called from inside the room. "Nice try, though. I saw another messenger do it once—before I became one—and I tried to do it, too, but I just hit my head really hard on the door! Boy, I felt really stupid after—"

"Blaze, enough rambling. Let them in," the guildmaster repeated.

"Yes, sir, Guildmaster Gundabad, sir!"

A flick sound echoed on the other side of the door.

"You came come in now, Team Advent," Blaze said. Ray did not wait for him to finish his sentence before he roughly pushed the door open. The riolu nearly nailed the messenger with the door, and Ray passed him by without a glance.

Once all three of us had entered, Blaze turned to push the door shut.

"Blaze, stop," the guildmaster said, pointing his claw towards the door.

Blaze halted and peered at the guildmaster questioningly. Still extending his claw, he said, "You are dismissed. This is discussion is not meant for your ears, and that includes through eavesdropping."

Blaze's tail visibly sagged. "Yes, sir," he mumbled before dragging himself out of the room. Ray unceremoniously shut the door after him.

"Good Arceus, he can be such an idiot sometimes. Anyway, you three, come take a seat," the guildmaster said as he gestured to the mats in front of him.

Eris quickly shot me a nervous look. I gently reached and patted her knee. She relaxed slightly, and I determinedly prodded her forward until she sat on the leftmost mat. Ray chose the rightmost one, leaving me with the mat directly before the guildmaster.

"I'm not one for small talk, so I'll get to the point," the guildmaster stated. "Have you three told anyone about Shroud?"

His question dumbfounded me. _Of course we haven't!_ I thought.

"No, sir, we haven't told anyone," I said. Eris voiced a similar reply, and Ray remained silent.

At our negative answer, the guildmaster frowned. "Are you sure?" he asked.

"Yeah, we're positive. We haven't said anything about him to anyone," I confirmed.

The garchomp breathed out harshly from his nose. He crossed his arms and stared into empty space, his face distant. His awkward silence, combined with the pressure of the current situation, wore on my nerves. I shifted on my mat, wanting, yet not daring to speak and interrupt the guildmaster's line of thought. Out of the corner of my eye, I saw Ray curl and uncurl his fists repeatedly.

 _C'mon, Ray, hold it in,_ I thought anxiously. _Please have restraint for just this once._

Finally, the guildmaster exhaled and thumped his tail on the floor. "I guess I could tell you," he muttered as if thinking aloud. Casting his gaze down to us, he asked, "Have you three heard the latest news in the exploration world?"

Eris and I shook our heads.

"Should've known. It's very recent, and it's not popular," he said. "It concerns the one topic I've been hoping didn't spread: Shroud."

My mind recoiled at his words. _N-no way. How...how can this be? I thought this was a contained issue._

"A few days before you officially joined my guild, I was contacted by Hawthorne about a criminal that had escaped to our half of the continent. They placed a large bounty on the head of a certain cloaked individual. At first, I only thought it was nothing until more reports of this criminal came pouring in, Ace's report being the latest."

 _He's been to more places?_ I thought. Then, I recalled that he had mentioned about a mine blowing up near Hawthorne and a monastery being destroyed.

"The notice came along with these papers," the guildmaster said, tossing a stack of papers down in front of us. "Apparently, I wasn't the only who had this issue thrust into their claws. Take a look."

I stooped to read the top paper, Eris and Ray crowding on either side of me. A large picture of Shroud in his black cloak dominated the center of the paper. The bottom of the page contained several lines of text.

 _"Shroud - S Class Criminal_

 _Wanted for mass destruction of many locations across the continent. Motives unknown. Highly dangerous. Not afraid to kill. Must be apprehended ALIVE. Return to Hawthorne Central Jail upon capture._

 _Bounty - 500,000 Poké"_

"500,000 Poké?!" I exclaimed. Ray's eyes widened at the massive sum. Eris gasped in shock and leaned closer to paper in disbelief.

Gundabad rapped his claws on his knees. "Yes, an exorbitant amount. Unfortunately, due to these bounty papers, news of Shroud is spreading around the continent. I've already heard whispers of him in Treasure Town. Sooner or later, everyone in the town will know about him."

I cocked my head in thought. "Isn't this a good thing, though? He'll get captured more quickly."

As soon as the words had come out of my mouth, Gundabad fiercely growled. "No, this is _not_ a good thing. The majority of my guild is not nearly equipped enough to handle him; they'll just get killed. I don't want my comrades dying on me just to get rich quick. I've already had to deal with some being hospitalized."

Him saying to this us only confused me. "Guildmaster, why bother telling us any of this? It's not like we can really help your current situation," I said. _Not beyond anything that I want to admit, anyway._

"You can help," Gundabad replied brusquely. "What I need right now is information, and you can get it. I found your interview with Detectives Jane and Pads when I visited the Sunrise Police Station. Mona, I've read that you have a long history with Kyle and Zane. You're the only one here who can approach them familiarly and thus acquire the most information. As a member of my guild, I have more faith in you than in those police."

His words shocked me to my core. _He found out about that? What else can he find out about me? How much about me is privy to him?_

Gundabad continued to explain. "I need you to go talk to those two tomorrow at Sunrise Hospital and get information on the one who kidnapped them, tortured them, and abandoned them. If things keep going the way they are, I'll need any and all information. Right now, those two have it, and you're the only way to get it."

I felt an invisible weight settle on my shoulders. Me, the newest exploration team leader of one of the most powerful guilds on the continent, is asked by the guildmaster himself to visit old friends in a hospital. Certainly, this is not what I was expecting so soon out of the gate. Astonishment filled me at the thought of it all.

"Um, I can do it," I replied in a small voice. "I was planning on going there tomorrow to see if they were okay, anyway."

Gundabad nodded gratefully. "Good to hear. I want that information by tomorrow night."

"I'll get the information," I assured, trying to maintain a bolder tone of voice.

A pleased expression flitted across Gundabad's face. "Visiting hours are between midmorning and noon and between lunch and mid-afternoon. Understand?" When I nodded, he continued, "Then you're dismissed. Goodnight."

"Goodnight, Guildmaster," I said.

"Um, goodnight...," Eris said.

Ray trained his eyes to the wall and quietly stood.

We left the guildmaster's room and rushed to our warm, inviting beds. Nothing disturbed us for the rest of the night.

* * *

Sunlight peeked out from above the buildings and splashed onto my fur, signaling that the day had reached midmorning. In front of me laid a modest, white-washed building. A sign nailed above the doors read "Sunrise Hospital - Caring for All Your Emergency Needs".

Despite the assurance that I gave the guildmaster last night, the idea of speaking with Zane did not enthuse me. He might just zap me out the door before I could even say a word in my defense. Hopefully, I could acquire information from Kyle before I had to confront Zane.

"This place looks like a dump," Ray remarked with a demeaning tone.

"Ray, this place isn't a dump. It just...looks a little dirty because dust stands out on white," I said. He shot me a sarcastic look. I sighed and shook my head. "Whatever, Ray. Let's go inside already. We're burning daylight."

It was Ray's turn to shake his head. "No thanks. Give me the treasure box; I'll get it appraised."

"How are you going to appraise it if we don't have any money?" I said. I purposefully avoided mentioning the thousands of emergency money in my bank account. That account was paws-off unless absolutely necessary.

"I've got my connections," he dodged.

"Con-nec-tions," I repeated, articulating every syllable.

"Look, it's not illegal. Just gimme the box."

"…Alright. Take it, you miser," I said. I proffered my bag to him, and accordingly, he reached into it and pulled out the treasure box. With him holding it, I could see how tiny it was in size—barely larger than my bag.

"Eris, you wanna go with him?" I asked, knowing what lay ahead. _It doesn't take two to get information. Plus, she's almost as scared of Zane as I am_ , I thought.

Eris stared at me blankly. I almost thought she did not hear me when she suddenly said, "No, no—I'll go with you. This is r-really important, and I'm w-worried, too, ya know."

Despite the part of me that wanted her to leave with Ray, a sense of relief settled over me. Now, I would not have to deal with Zane alone, even though the thought of me needing another person to deal with my problems bugged the crap out of me.

"Well, see ya back in a bit," Ray said. Shifting the Box into a more comfortable position, he strutted past me and into the street. He easily slipped into the crowd and vanished from sight.

"Wait, Ray! Meet back here, right?" I called. I thought I heard him say, "Yes," but the noise of the crowd drowned out whatever response he might have given.

"Ah well," I said, partly with resignation for the task ahead. I faced the hospital once more. Mustering my courage, I strode towards the front doors. Eris still was with me. I could do this.

A chime sounded as we walked through the doors. The inside of the hospital appeared plain. Several wooden chairs and cushion seats lined the walls to my left and right. A front desk filled the space on the back wall. On both sides of the front desk, hallways extended into the depths of the building. A spinda sat behind the desk, her head lazily propped on her left arm as she read a novella.

Having learned about the general operation of clinics from one that had been in Oran Forest, I approached the receptionist. She must have noticed me out of the corner of her eyes because she shut her book and lifted her head off her hand.

"Hello. How may I help you?" she asked politely.

"Hello. We're here to visit two pokémon who should have been checked in here yesterday," I said. "Their names are Kyle and Zane. They're a combusken and luxio, respectively."

"Hmm...," the spinda hummed. She reached under her desk and pulled out a booklet. Opening it, she flipped through the pages until she reached a page in the middle. "Yes, a combusken and luxio were checked in here yesterday. Unfortunately, it says here that the luxio has yet to awaken and cannot accept visitors right now, but you can visit the combusken."

 _Zane's still asleep,_ I pondered. _That might be a good thing, actually..._

"Yeah, sure. We'll visit Kyle—er, the combusken, I mean," I confirmed.

"Very well. Give me a moment," the spinda said. She asked us for our names, which we readily gave her, then jotted them down in her booklet. After snapping it shut, she extended her hand under her desk and swapped the roster with an hourglass. Since I could not physically hold the hourglass, she gave the item to Eris.

"When you get to the combusken's room, just give that thing a turn. The hourglass will glow green once the sand's hit the bottom. That's your signal that your visiting time is up. If you try to stay too long, we'll know, and we'll have to ask you to leave. The patients need as much rest as possible," the spinda explained.

The spinda leaned back and shouted at a nearby door in the hallway. A floette poked her head out of the doorway in response. The spinda motioned for her to come closer.

"What is it?" the floette asked. She tilted her head against her flower in a curious pose.

"I need you to take these two to room 14 on the third floor," the spinda said.

"Room 314? Didn't that patient only just get cleared?" the floette asked concernedly.

"These two still want to visit anyway," the spinda retorted.

The floette frowned at her comment, but she did not spark an argument. Instead, she floated to us and said, "You two can follow me. The stairwell is this way."

She guided us down the left hallway to a door on the left. As the floette hovered in front of the door, a soothing wind sprung out of nowhere and turned the doorknob. While I breathed in a deep, relaxing breath, Eris shivered and hugged her arms close to her chest.

"This way," the floette said. She led us up two flights of stairs and through another doorway. She guided us to the right along the third floor's hallway until we reached a door marked "314".

The floette gestured to the door. "He's in there," she said, "but I would be careful. This patient was in a terrible mental state when he first woke up. I wouldn't do anything to panic him if I were you."

 _Unfortunately, I might do just that if I ask Kyle about his incident,_ I realized. _Oh, Arceus, please let this go okay._

"Thanks for the warning," I said.

"Have a good day," the floette said, waving goodbye.

I waited until she had shut the stairwell door behind her before opening the door to Kyle's room. The room had a barren appearance; it only contained two nightstands, a small cabinet, and a bed. Sunlight streamed from a window and reflected off the gray walls onto the combusken resting on the bed. Bandages wreathed his head and torso, and his left arm hung in a sling.

 _My word. Kyle looks so horrible with all those bandages. What did his attacker really do to him?_ I thought in horror.

Oblivious to our entrance, Kyle gazed abjectly out the window near his bedside. His chest raised and lowered slowly, constrained by its tight wrappings. His uninjured arm laid bent at his side, almost as if prepared to punch any threat that presented itself to it.

"Hey, Kyle," I said.

Kyle rotated his head from the window to me. His blank expression shocked me. His eyes appeared so dead and lifeless that if he had stopped breathing for just a moment, I would have thought that he was dead. If I peered deeper into those eyes, I could spot an inner torment writhing like seviper.

As our eyes held each other's gazes, I could see his brain starting to come to life behind his dull irises as he processed who stood in front of him.

"Mona?" he said in disbelief.

"Hi, Kyle. It's me," I greeted, confirming my identity. I understood his incredulity; I would be filled with shock if I saw Kyle suddenly open the door to my hospital room.

Kyle shifted his gaze to Eris. "And you...? You're the transfer…Eris?"

Eris blushed and ducked her head. "Y-yeah... I, um, am...," she whispered shyly.

Kyle did not reply in kind; he merely lowered his head back onto the pillow. His behavior more than disturbed me. While he was not a talkative pokémon, Kyle did have manners. For him to not return a simple greeting, his mind must be deeply perturbed.

 _I have to get him to talk,_ I thought.

"So, Kyle, how are you doing right now? When will the doctors let you out?" I inquired.

He lifted his head off his pillow, but he did not speak. His eyes rolled back to the window. When I followed his gaze, I noticed a flock of wingull soaring over the tops of the buildings.

"Kyle?" I called.

He returned his attention to me. His eyes had a more focused appearance. "I'm...getting better," he shakily responded, finally speaking. "I can leave in nine days." Making eye contact with me, he asked, "How did you get here?"

Eager to keep his attention, I summarized our trip here and our acceptance into Ironfist, glossing over the emotional details of our application process. I made sure to avoid mentioning Shroud. At the end, I proffered my explorer's badge with its new, shiny luster. Eris mimicked me and pointed out hers as well.

Kyle nodded distractedly and gazed out the window again. I permitted a silence to settle over us for a minute to give Kyle a moment to rest. Then, I stated, "Kyle, I saw you outside of Treasure Town."

Kyle suddenly jerked his entire body upward. His eyes contained little trace of the fog they held short moments ago. His free hand dug into his bed, his claws puncturing it.

I took his sudden focus as a sign to continue. "Kyle, you were hurt. Really badly. You almost looked dead."

Kyle gripped his bed tighter. His claws ripped the cotton out of the bed's interior with their steady clenching and unclenching motion.

"Kyle, I need to know who did that to you. I need to find him and make him pay for what he did to you, to Lucy, and to all the other people he's hurt," I told him.

His hand curled firmly into a fist. His expression hardened into a serious visage. His eyes stared at the bed sheet draped over his lower body.

"Please, Kyle. I need to know. Who did it? Who hurt you?" I asked.

Remaining silent for a moment longer, Kyle finally answered me: " _Him_. The cloaked one."

His response confirmed all of my suspicions. _I knew it. Shroud did attack him,_ I thought. Unfortunately, that piece of information would not help me, or anyone, find him; I had to press further.

"Kyle, if you can remember, where did... _he_ attack you?" I asked, avoiding mentioning the dreaded name.

Flinching slightly, Kyle quietly replied, "It was near the mountains. I was journeying to them when he attacked me. I did not see him. I did not hear him."

 _Holy crap,_ I thought.

"He used attacks that I had never known existed. I never stood a chance. He beat me over and over and…gah. Then, everything went black. I woke up here," he finished. He shut his eyes in pain and slouched his shoulders. The pure memory of the encounter obviously agonized him beyond words.

I approached him and stared up at him. _My Arceus. He looks terrible. I feel so bad now,_ I thought regretfully.

"Kyle, I'm so sorry. I wanted that information so badly that I didn't think too much about how you would feel. I'm sorry," I apologized.

Kyle did not respond to my apology. Instead, he removed his right hand from his bed and buried his head in it. Comprehending that Kyle had nothing more to say to us, I stepped away from him and walked towards the door.

"Let's go, Eris. Kyle needs to rest," I said.

She nodded. As she opened the door, a voice stopped me in my tracks.

"Mona," Kyle called.

Pivoting around on my hind legs, I cocked my head curiously and responded, "Yeah, Kyle?"

He removed his head from his hand and stared at me fearfully. "Don't go after him. He is utterly merciless. He will get you. You will die."

Shuddering at his deadly prediction, I mumbled a hasty goodbye and rushed out of the room before Kyle could say anything more. I heard Eris swing the door shut behind me.

"Kyle…," she said sadly. I noticed that she was gripping the hourglass a litter tighter than she should have.

"I know," I wholeheartedly agreed. If Shroud nearly destroyed Kyle, the fighting prodigy, in a heartbeat, he was deadly in my book. He almost nearly killed me, too. Without Ace's last-minute rescue, I would have died.

"What he told us at the end... Mona, um, were you actually planning on...going after him?" Eris asked.

I closed my eyes and turned my head away from her. Truthfully, I wanted to go after him. I wanted to make him pay for all of the suffering, the agony, he had—and still is—putting me through. A fire burned in my soul even just thinking about that cloaked freak.

My silence was all the answer she needed. Eris hugged the hourglass against her chest. "Mona, you c-can't be serious!"

Sighing, I said, "I know, Eris, but something in me won't just sit idly by while he destroys people's lives like he did to Lucy. Even if I can't catch him myself, I'm going to make darn sure that somebody else can. I—he can't just be left alone. He can't."

"He can't, or you can't?" she asked sagely, her eyes gazing down at me.

 _Why does she have that look in her eyes? Is she...afraid of me?_ I thought. _No, that can't be right. Why would she be afraid of me? I must be mistaking things. She must be afraid of how evil Shroud is. She said so herself._

Glancing down at the hourglass in Eris's hands, I noticed that the sand had barely filled the bottom to half-full. "Hey, Eris, let's just head back down. We've got plenty of time; we don't have to rush back," I said, trying to steer the conversation away from the current topic.

"Mona, d-don't drop this on m-me," she said.

I sighed in exasperation. "Eris, how can you not feel angry at Shroud for what he did to Lucy? Don't you feel like he shouldn't be getting away with it like he is?"

Eris's gaze lowered to the floor. "L-L-Let's just go…," she whispered after a long moment.

I remembered that the staircase laid down the hall to our right, so I pointed in the respective direction. "I think it's this way," I said. Eris shuffled after me.

Taking the lead, I ambled along the hallway, my mind reflecting on Kyle's information. He did not give me much knew information; all I could glean from his words was that Shroud attacked Kyle while Kyle was journeying to the mountains.

 _The mountains are quite a distance from the school_ , I pondered. _He must've spent the past two-ish weeks since his attack on the school getting to them, attacking Kyle and Zane, and bringing them to Treasure Town. That means that Kyle and Zane must have been close to each other; otherwise, Shroud wouldn't have made it back to here in time. But why bring them to Treasure Town at all? It's half a continent away!_

On my left, a door hung slightly ajar on its hinges. Breaking out of my thoughts, I curiously leaned close to the door and peeked into the room. The room seemed much the same as Kyle's room: gray walls, nightstands, a bed, and...

 _No. It can't be._

A luxio laid awake on his bed. His body was oriented in such a manner that he was facing directly towards the door. Instantly, I recognized him despite his bandaged face; the luxio was Zane.

My body stiffened upon recognizing him, which attracted Eris's attention. She glanced from the interior of the room to me, a questioning look on her face. I did not respond to her tacit inquiry; my conflicting emotions had engrossed me.

 _He's awake. The nurse said he was asleep, but he's not. Should I go in? I don't want to see him, but I promised the guildmaster information. Kyle's vague information won't cut it...or will it?_

Unfortunately, Zane made my choice for me. His eyes flicked to the door disinterestedly, and he saw me paralyzed outside of his room. His eyes widened in shock, then harshly narrowed.

"Mona," Zane seethed, his voice laced with contempt.

At this point, if I decided to leave, I would be blatantly running away from him. My paw had been forced; I had to speak with Zane or walk away with a wounded pride.

The choice was obvious.

"Zane," I said, my distaste as equally evident as his. I pushed open the door to his room and stepped inside of it.

"What are you doing here?" he growled threateningly.

I tried to give him a partial truth. "I was just here to visit you and Kyle to see how you were," I answered.

"Ha! You think I'm an idiot?" Zane scoffed. He curled into a sitting position on his bed and glowered down at me. "I can tell that you are here for another reason than to simply _visit_ me. After all, why would you come to me on your own volition?"

He had called my bluff. I automatically flinched at his scathing remark. Zane softly purred in amusement at my cowering.

"I'm going to ask you again: what are you really doing here?" he questioned.

I paused, then I responded with full honesty: "I'm here to acquire information on the pokémon who attacked you and Kyle."

Zane's face hardened inexplicably. A frown crawled onto his face, and he crossed his forepaws in front of him. "Why would a low-life like you want such a thing from me?" he asked.

I shoved down my rising anger. "Well, not enough information is known about Shroud to catch him," I vaguely responded, trying to direct the conversation away from me personally. "He attacked you, so you probably know something about him that might be beneficial knowledge."

I heard Zane's tail thump underneath his bed sheet. "You have no connection to this, I presume? You're just a bystander in this situation?" he asked.

I cocked my head at him. "No, I'm—" I started to say, but quickly bit my tongue upon realizing the implications of what I was saying. I had just admitted that I was, or at least wanted, to be involved in the Shroud hunt. Zane's eyes glinted at my response.

"Hmph. I should have suspected as much. You're here for personal reasons, are you not?" he stated in a rhetorical tone. At my lack of a response, he began to laugh triumphantly. "You think you can apprehend Shroud? Ha! You do not even have a chance of touching him! He would kill you in an instant," he sardonically joked.

I frantically tried to scrounge up a rebuttal. _How is he so good at seeing through me? It's not fair!_

"Zane, this isn't about me," I argued. "I'm not the only who wants to capture Shroud. Other pokémon with plenty more experience than me want to find him. You're one of the few pokémon who's survived an encounter with him, and that means that you're one of the few who actually knows something about him. He's killed innocents and ruined countless other pokémon's lives. He needs to be apprehended."

"I do not care about other's desires. They can do whatever they please, so long as they do not bother me with their trivial grievances," Zane calmly said. "Currently, you are bothering me with your incessant pleading, and I have no reason to entrust information to you."

Preparing a retort, I opened my mouth to voice my opinions when Zane suddenly said, "Wait a moment." His mouth curled into an uncanny smirk. "I think I can offer you a trade," he purred. "If you give me what I want, I'll give you what you want."

I growled at his dominance in our conversation, but nonetheless replied, "What _do_ you want, Zane?"

He leaned close to me and said, "I want your detect band."

 _What? My detect band?_ I thought incredulously. "Why do you want my detect band?" I asked, a suspicious tone creeping into my voice.

Zane retracted himself and shifted back into a comfortable position. "Do you want the information or not?" he countered, posing an ultimatum.

"...Alright, Zane. I'll give you the band," I acquiesced.

A hand pressed down on my shoulder. "Mona, a-a-are you, um, sure about this? He, uh, might not h-have good information," Eris cautioned.

"Eris. Please take the band off my neck," I said. My head turned to hers, and our eyes connected. I channeled as much of my determination into my stare as I could. She visibly squirmed for several seconds before sighing.

"Mona, you c-can' b-be—"

"Please take it off, Eris," I repeated. Eris sighed in defeat.

"Okay...," she said. She reluctantly untied the band from around my neck and placed it on Zane's bed. With a pleasant expression, Zane tucked the band under his sheets.

"Hmm. Well, I am a pokémon of my word. I suppose I could tell you what I know," he said. "Now, where to begin...?"

He paused for a moment, his face contemplative. "I suppose I'll start with the school fire since that's the last time I remember seeing you. I had awoken after destroying the rubble blocking the escape route to find myself abandoned in the midst of the flames. I saw you imbeciles crowded around a huge mass of vines like it was the discovery of a century. The next thing I know, a cloaked figure teleports in front of me and knocks me out."

 _Teleportation? That would explain how he got out of Mr. Ace's vines so easily. It also is a likely explanation for how he got himself and two bodies across half a continent so quickly_ , I mused.

"I next remember waking up in a dismal, tiny cave. A dark, shadowy power bound my legs and stomach to the ground. My captor was with me. At that point...he began to...," Zane said, then halted. He visibly winced at the end of his sentence upon recalling what must have been agonizing memories.

"...Regardless," he continued, "I fell unconscious and found myself in this bed when I returned to consciousness."

His story raised more questions in me than answered them. Deciding that they were harmless enough to ask, I said, "Did he ever mention why he took you? Do you know anything about where he took you?"

Zane shook his head. "He did mention 'breaking' something in some ruins several times, but that's all I remember. I do not know anything about the cave in which he imprisoned me. However, I do remember seeing a massive mountain that pierced through the clouds dominating much of the exterior view of the cave. It was hard to miss."

"I see. That's all?"

"Yes. I believe I have fulfilled my end of the bargain."

"Well, then, I guess that's it," I said.

Zane smirked smugly. "Pleasure doing business with you."

"Sure, yeah."

I could not stand the sight of Zane's victorious grin, so I turned my back to him and strode stiffly out the room, leaving Eris to shut the door behind us. Once she had closed it, we both sighed, but for different reasons.

"Mona, why did you…?" Eris asked.

"What other option did we have?" I rebuked.

"I-I don't know! Just s-something else."

"Well, it's over now. We got what we needed. Let's go wait outside for Ray," I said curtly. Eris glanced down at her hourglass, which had drained a little past halfway. Letting her hands fall to her sides, she followed me as I marched to the stairs.

Moving on already from the argument, I tried to piece together Zane and Kyle's information. They were both attacked in the mountains. Zane had mentioned teleporting, an impossibly tall mountain near him, and some ruins in which Shroud wanted to "break something."

 _Those ruins must be that Ruins of Eld of which Team Crescent spoke_ , I thought. Could those ruins be sealed? Is that why Shroud wants to "break" them? Then, why did he not just blow up the entrance? With the power he showed, I figured that he could easily do it.

 _Arrgh, too many questions with not enough answers !_ I mentally growled.

When we reached the first floor, Eris returned the hourglass to the spinda at the front desk. The spinda thanked us and bade us good day. However, she stopped us from leaving when she asked, "Hey, you don't have your band anymore. Did you lose it?"

Confused, I glanced down at my neck. I almost gasped when I remembered that I had given Zane my detect band. Of course, someone would notice when such a precious item vanished.

"Um, well, I took it off upstairs since it was getting too hot for me to wear it," I quickly lied. I figured that the hospital would not appreciate me giving their patient an item such as a detect band.

"Oh, I always feel cold in the upper floors, but I guess your fur's thicker than mine. Sorry for holding you up. Have a nice day," the spinda apologized.

"You as well," I said. Eris waved goodbye with a smile. We left the spinda to her business and exited into the sunny early afternoon. The streets had only thickened with more townsfolk since midmorning, and voices of many volumes rang in the warm, summer air.

My eyes scanned our side of the street for any sign of Ray. Finding none, I said to Eris in an exasperated tone, "It looks like Ray isn't back yet. He's probably at the guild."

"I'm right here," a voice called from my left. I wheeled towards the shadows and discerned Ray leaning against the wall of another building to the left of the hospital. He pushed himself off the wall and sauntered to me and Eris. I felt my cheeks burn hotly from embarrassment.

"Where've you been?" I asked, trying to recover my dignity. As soon as the question left my mouth, I perceived a seed resting loosely in his right paw. I only spent a second identifying it: a reviver seed.

"Ray, how did you get that reviver seed?" I asked in surprise. _He actually managed to acquire one? How did he get the money?_ I thought.

Ray held the reviver seed before him. "This? Oh, I got this at the market," he responded. "Took some haggling, but I got a good price."

"Yeah, but how did it all happen? Last time I checked, we were pretty much broke," I said.

"I have my connections," he said, parroting his statement from before, "and we just so happened to get a gold ribbon from the box."

"A g-gold ribbon?" Eris said awe. "Those t-things are worth so much!"

"Made buying that reviver seed a piece of cake, I bet," I said appreciatively.

"We came out with a flat 1,600," he said. He shoved the seed into my bag and tightly secured the flap.

"Wow! Thanks, Ray," I said, pleased that the Treasure Box had contained such a valuable item. "Thank you for buying that for us. It was really thoughtful of you to think of everyone like that."

Thought I tried to sound sincere in my thank-you, Ray brushed off the compliment remorselessly. "It was something that would have been stupid not to do," he said with a shrug.

I mentally sighed at my failed attempt to elicit a grateful acknowledgement from Ray. _Maybe he's just like this all the time,_ I thought saddeningly.

Ray turned towards the street and began walking away from us. Knowing that Ray would leave without us, I told Eris that we should follow him and ran after him. After wading through the streets and into Ironfist, we returned to Alice's office. About to begin her lunch break, Alice initially was irritated at our arrival, but once we revealed that we had acquired a reviver seed, she abruptly changed her tune. She congratulated us and told us that we had received our reward of ten rank points and 100 poké. We did not bother telling her that we had bought it from the marketplace.

Instead of paying us directly, she handed us a voucher and directed us to the payment exchange on the opposite side of the office space. Jeremiah, the persian in charge of managing the exchange, would swap our voucher for the money. I apologized for interrupting her lunch break and thanked her for her time.

Jeremiah acted pleasant compared to the duskull moneylender I had encountered a few days prior. He simply handed us our money without much small talk. While the 100 poké paled in comparison to the 1,600 we currently had, we were still grateful for it.

Outside the office complex, we debated our next course of action.

"We could pick up a job for tomorrow right now," I suggested.

"There's not a lot of jobs left, though. We won't get good pickings," Ray countered. "We should wait until later or until tomorrow to get a new request."

"Yeah, but we would have to deal with the crowds in morning. Not a lot of people are here right now. We could choose without the pressure of having lots of other teams behind us who want the same thing we do," I said.

Ray opened his mouth to continue arguing when his stomach rumbled audibly. He blinked in shock and stared down at his belly. Almost as if in response, my stomach growled loudly.

"Well, we could get a bite to eat and come back later," I said laughingly.

"...Alright," Ray said, "but only because we can't eat here."

Eris injected herself into our conversation. "Um, I remember, uh, seeing a place at Pokémon Square..."

I smiled at her gratefully. "Sounds great!" I said. "Let's get going; we're all really hungry."

We quickly rushed out of the guild and scurried towards Pokémon Square. Busy crowds flocked around the multitude of exploration-themed shops and business buildings. The old monument of Wigglytuff's Guild soared over the entire square, its tattered entrance tent still imbuing the atmosphere with its powerful presence.

After a minute of searching, we located the restaurant that Eris had recalled from our last visit to the famous square.

"What?!" I exclaimed as I read the prices on the display menu. "This is... This is almost criminal! Look at the price of that berry platter."

Indeed, the menu featured a host of incredibly pricey delicacies. A single cup of oran berry tea cost 800 poké. The berry platter that I had mentioned cost a whopping 7,350 Poké.

"I'm so sorry...," Eris apologized. "I didn't know...that it would be so much...to eat here."

"It's fine, Eris," I said. "We can just find someplace else. It'll give us the excuse to learn the town's layout a little more, too."

Ray snorted at my comment but did not say anything patronizing.

I shot him a brief glare, then said, "Well, we can go west. Ray, you did say that a lot of shops were around there."

Ray shrugged his shoulders nonchalantly. "Fine with me."

"I wouldn't mind, um, seeing the town, too," Eris said.

"Then it's settled. Let's take Main Street; we're sure to find a lot of stuff there," I said.

The western half of Main Street proved to be less crowded than the eastern half. Despite that fact, many pokémon still clogged the sides of the streets, leaving the center clear for bulky pokémon that pulled carts full of merchants' goods.

After enjoying a pleasant, sight-seeing stroll, we happened upon a reasonably priced café that appeared to be privately owned. We ravenously stormed into the shop and ordered a delicious, fresh lunch.

The chef prepared our meals quickly. As he set the food before us, I silently offered the meal to Arceus, then dug into my steaming chilan berry and leafy greens sandwich. Eris contentedly munched on a salad, and Ray gobbled a queer item called a vegetable "hot pocket". It seemed interesting enough that I decided I would purchase one for myself sometime in the future.

"So, guys, I was thinking: we have to make sure that we don't fail our next mission. We can't just hope to get lucky again and be able to buy our mission's item," I said.

"That's t-true, but we did do it in the end, right?" Eris said after swallowing a bite.

"Yeah, but it just doesn't sit right with me that we bought off our job," I said. "Plus, that's kind of self-defeating."

"We got it done, and we got it done cheap. We wouldn't have had to do it if you hadn't used it on me," Ray spat, clearly still not over the matter.

"And if you hadn't gotten knocked out in the first place, I wouldn't have had to make that choice," I shot back.

"Guys, please!" Eris said, interrupting us both. "We messed up, okay? Could we j-just, ya know, um, take it and move on…or whatever they say?"

Our waiter arrived with the bill before either Ray or I could reply. I glanced over it to make sure the price was correct and was a little shocked at the number at the bottom.

"Hey, guys," I said concernedly. "We might want to go to a nearby market and pick up some food for ourselves. We spent 530 poké on our lunch, which is still a good bit of money. If we get our own food, we would probably save some poké in the long run."

"Lemme see that," Ray said, snatching the bill from across the table. He skimmed the listed prices as if to ensure they were accurate. He fingered his collar fur and grunted. "We should buy our own food. Even though this was a cheaper café, this bill is still overpriced."

"We could...go to Pokémon Square," Eris offered.

I shook my head. "No, that place will be too expensive. We could look around here some more; the prices seem to be lower in this area of town."

We still had to pay the bill, so we left 530 poké on the table. Having learned from our mistake, we traveled further west in search for a marketplace. After half an hour, we discovered a promising market located near the northwestern edge of town. Luckily, I still wore my treasure bag, meaning that we enough room to carry a large quantity of food.

Almost stuffing the bag full of the fruits, vegetables, and bread, we exited the market some short time later. A pride settled over me at how well I had haggled for the prices on the produce. Mom and Dad had taught me well.

 _Mom and Dad…I should write to them soon_ , I thought.

"Well, this produce will probably stay good for a while in here," I said, gesturing to the bag. "I guess we'll head over to the library. You going to train now?"

"Yep. See you in a bit," Ray said. He slipped back into the crowd without further statement.

Eris stared after him. "You think it was okay to just, uh, l-let him on our team?" she asked me.

"I think so. He's crabby as heck, but he's reliable—somewhat," I said. Eris giggled a little bit after I said that. I laughed a little, too; laughter was really contagious.

"Okay, I saw a library a little back toward the square. Let's head to that one," I suggested. Trekking back through the crowd, we hustled to a rather squat building in between two apartment complexes. The summer sun reflected brightly off its polished wood walls. Not a single window lay on its walls, thus completely obscuring the interior.

A familiar ecstasy washed over me. I thoroughly enjoyed in visiting a library. The vast knowledge and entertainment it contained enraptured me to the point of wanting to huddle in the back for hours—an act that I have committed on several occasions. My parents, at the end of every year, always treated me to a massive day out at the library followed by a trip to the bookstore to purchase two new books.

At the thought of my parents, I realized that I had yet to write to them. I had been gone for over two weeks, so I knew that they were expecting some correspondence soon. I wrote down on my mental checklist to write to them today or tomorrow.

"Let's hurry up inside, Eris!" I cheered, rushing to the doors.

* * *

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	12. Chapter 11: Knowledge of the Past

**\- Chapter 11: Knowledge of the Past -  
**

As I pushed open the carved wooden doors to the library, the musty scent of aged paper wafted into my nostrils. Extending along the walls were shelves upon shelves of books, scrolls, and tablets. Lengthy bookcases formed neat aisles in the center of the library. A second floor opened into the first floor's ceiling, the balcony encircling the entire building. Four simple candle chandeliers hung from the second floor's ceiling, providing dim, yet sufficient lighting.

The lack of windows promoted a secluded atmosphere. When the doors clanged shut, I felt that I had been sealed into a different world. My heart skipped a beat as I absorbed the sheer enormity of it all. Back home, the library barely had a third this many books—only half of which I ever did read.

"This place is magnificent," I breathed.

"I guess. It smells a little moldy," Eris said. She had little enthrallment for the volumes of knowledge and entertainment surrounding her. How could she not appreciate all of this fine literature?

"It smells wonderful to me," I lightly countered, giving her a playful sidelong glance. Then, I lightly skipped over to the librarian's desk. A diminutive meowstic reclined on a straight-back chair, her levi-pen scrawling notes on a fresh piece of paper.

"Excuse me, ma'am?" I asked.

"Oh, hello. Welcome to the Main Street Library. How may I assist you?" she asked, her levi-pen falling onto the desk.

"Where are your public archives?" I inquired of her.

She pointed over her shoulder. "It's back over there."

Her vague gesture and directions left me a little confused. I could not spot the indicated section, what with the walls of bookshelves blocking my view. The librarian noticed my confusion because she rose from her chair and said, "I'll just show you. Follow me."

She led us to the back-left corner of the library. Along the way, we passed rows of thrillers, romances, comedies, biographies, autobiographies, and horror novels. Unconsciously, I found myself hesitating before a particularly enticing novella. Eris nearly had to push me along to keep me moving.

 _Well, now I know where my free time is going_ , I remarked to myself.

We halted near the back-left corner of the building. On the shelves rested several boxes, each marked with a keyword or keywords denoting their contents such as "Paleontology" and "Skeletal Anaylses."

Turning to us, the meowstic asked, "What are you looking for?"

"Do you have any archeological collections? Maybe some concerning ruins?" I asked, my second question tacked on in hasty remembrance. The librarian bobbed her head side to side in thought, then telekinetically removed a box from the top shelf. She floated it over to a nearby table, where it settled with a noticeably loud thump.

"That's all of our archeological books. We have several concerning ruins in there," she said. "This collection seems to be a little popular as of late. Someone came in here a couple of days ago asking for it, too."

"Really? Neat. Thank you, ma'am," I said.

"You're welcome. You can only view one box at a time, so if you wish to view another collection, please let me know. Some of them are fragile, so handle them carefully," the librarian said.

"Thanks," I said with a smile. She smiled back before strutting back to the front. Returning my focus to the box, I hopped onto a chair. Eris pulled up a chair next to me.

"Wow. A lot of, uh, books," she said. She removed the lid to the box and removed a thick book from the box. Then, she pulled out another thick one, then another, then another.

"They're big," I whispered.

"They're, uh, all big," Eris amended as she skimmed the contents of the box. "So, uh, what are we looking for again?"

I clicked my tongue against my teeth. "Something about a Ruins of Eld. I heard Mr. Ace mention it, and I'm really curious."

I slid over a volume titled _Discussions of the Latest Discoveries_ —or, rather, I painstakingly shoved it over using my shoulder and an awkwardly twisted back position.

 _This is book is too heavy_ , I thought, disgruntled.

Eris opened a copy of _Early Tribal Cities: Rise and Decay_. While it contained much less content, the text on the pages was miniscule. I could barely tell what she was reading, and I was sitting right next to her.

 _Focus on your book, Mona_ , I told myself. After scanning the table of contents, I flipped to the most promising sections of the book and began reading.

The recovery of a lost tribal artifact collection? Nope. The unearthing of a new section of an ancient lakeside city? Not relevant enough. Breakthrough analysis of the ancient global trade system based on bronze? Intriguing, but no. Interesting carving found on the top of a mountainside? Trivial, and no.

Finding no mention of the Ruins of Eld in this book, I pushed it away and asked Eris to hand me another book. She plopped another hulking mass of paper in front of me. I frowned at her, and she shrugged back helplessly. I glared at the book; as much as I loved reading, this was a little much.

In this manner did we proceed for the next hour or so. We skipped past the books that held no relevancy. Eventually, Eris reached a book that held some true promise: _Lost Civilizations and Mystery Dungeons_.

"Ugh. I h-hope that this is, uh, the, uh, one," Eris said, strained.

"I'm at the end of my rope, too. Flip to the table of contents," I stated. She did so, and we found the section covering the ruins themselves. Turning to the articles, we examined each one carefully.

"'The Connection between Dungeons and History'…'Southernmost Cities'…'Mountaintop Locations'…'Recently Discovered Ruins with Mystery Dungeons'! Hey, finally, something with 'ruins' in the title," I cheered. We stopped at that article and began reading. Having a faster reading speed, I reached the middle of the article first, where the author mentioned a ruined fortress associated with a Mystery Dungeon that were collectively and colloquially known as the "Ruins of Eld."

"Score! Found it," I told Eris.

"Really? W-Where?" she asked, to which I pointed out the middle of the article.

"I knew it was important," I said.

"I…I can't believe it exists," Eris commented.

 _So, these are the ruins that Shroud's invested in_ , I thought. _The book says that this ruin has been the target of many archeologists since they believe that it holds the key to unlocking the secrets of an ancient civilization. The Mystery Dungeon, from what they're saying, is acting like a wall to keep them from delving deeper. On top of that, the ruins are located west of Sky Peak, near a place called Damsel._

I pursed my lips as my thoughts delved deeper. _Sky Peak would match what Zane was saying about seeing a really tall mountain; Sky Peak is one of very few mountains that extends high enough to pierce the clouds. Could Shroud be after this supposed 'key' to the ancient civilization? But…isn't Shroud after war? Why would he be interested in irrelevant ruins?_

"Mona? What's wrong?" Eris asked concernedly. She had moved on to reading another book. I snapped out of my thoughts, realizing that my face was scrunched up and sitting very close to the page. I leaned back and released the breath that I had been holding.

"Ah, I was just thinking. You know Zane mentioned about a tall mountain near his hideout?" I said. She nodded. I continued, "Well, the article says that the Ruins of Eld are located near Sky Peak. That's the only mountain that could fit Zane's description—the only other one is that mountain down in the frozen island southwest of Westil. The article also says that the ruins are believed to hold some sort of key to finding out the mysteries behind an ancient civilization. I was just thinking that Shroud could be after what's in the ruins."

Instead of looking surprised, Eris seemed to calmly agree with what I had said. "So, um, it's like what Mr. Ace was s-saying to the guildmaster r-right before we left that day," she remarked.

"You heard what he said, too?"

"Y-Yeah. I figured that's, uh, why you wanted to c-come here, and I, uh, um, was c-curious, too," she said. "And, Mona…"

I cocked my head at her. Her voice had that tone in it where she was going to call out a bluff. "Yes, Eris?"

Her eyes broke away from mine. "This is all a-about Lucy, isn't it…? You c-can't let her go, huh?"

After our talks with Zane and Kyle, I should have known that she would say this. I tried to dodge the question by saying, "What makes you think that?" but it didn't work out. Instead of answering my question, she continued with her own line of thought.

"Sh-Shroud's dangerous, Mona. He…almost killed you. Why? W-Why do you want to ch-chase after him so much?" she posed.

I growled softly. "He just can't be left alone when he's done so much wrong," I protested.

"The guildmaster s-said that there are a bunch of, uh, teams going after him. You d-don't need to do anything! So, just, uh, why?" she yelled—the equivalent of a normal speaking tone to me.

"Because I can't forgive him!" I yelled back, more the appropriate volume. Remembering that we were in a library, I sheepishly ducked my head. Speaking in a lower tone, I added, "Eris, I was _right in front of him_ when he stabbed Lucy. I tried to stop him, and I failed. Lucy's death is on _me_. Doing nothing would be like not taking responsibility. If I couldn't do anything while she was alive, I need to something now that she's…"

Tears welled up in my eyes. I swung my head away from Eris, raising up a paw to wipe them away. Even still, drops trickled down into my fur. Sniffing, I shifted back toward Eris when arms suddenly wrapped around me. The top of my head suddenly felt wet.

"I…," Eris said tightly, her voice cracking. "I miss her, too, Mona. I want t-to do something, too. But, I just…I just…"

As her voice faded into silence, her arms wrapped around me more tightly. Losing control of my own tears, I leaned into her embrace. Together, we silently cried, mourning the death of our closest friend.

I cannot say how long we held each other like that. Eventually, I pushed away from Eris, and she released her hold on me. Wiping away the last tears in her eyes, she glanced back at the table.

"W-W-We sh-should, uh, check out-t this b-b-book," she said, pointing to the book with the article about the Ruins of Eld. Reaching for it, she lifted it by the spine and began to shut it. Before she could, a slip of paper fell out of the back pages and landed on the table.

Blinking heavily to clear my vision, I examined the paper with intrigue. Inscribed in swirling penmanship was: "Icarus, RE. 21st E. Dusk." A vine with a three-pointed leaf adorned the bottom right corner of the slip. With a terrible fascination, I recognized that particular emblem.

"That's Mr. Ace's seal," I said.

"Where?" Eris asked.

"Right there in the corner," I replied, pointing with a claw at the aforementioned spot. Eris gaped a little at the seal, her eyes snapping out of their haze.

"What is this?" Eris murmured.

I analyzed the text closely. "Icarus is a name. Is Mr. Ace addressing this? Then, this is a meeting note. RE…my only immediate guess is that those are initials to the meeting place. That would make sense, given that 21st E definitely is the date: the 21st of Equinox. Dusk is obviously the time. What is RE, then?"

"Uh, Mona?"

My attention drifted out of my thoughts. "Oh, sorry, Eris," I said apologetically. I did not realize that I was thinking aloud.

"You k-kind of freaked me out there," she stuttered.

I laughed tensely. "Anyway, Eris," I said, moving on, "any idea what—wait a second, RE could mean the Ruins of Eld!"

"W-What makes you think that?" Eris questioned.

"Well, Mr. Ace seemed really invested in this Ruins of Eld. He hardly cared about seeing us again when we met him the guildmaster's office. As soon as we left, he just went straight to talking about it. Maybe…Maybe Icarus is a friend, or a contact, or one of his teammates!" I rambled.

"Mona, Mona, Mona, s-slow down," Eris said. "Y-You're being too brilliant for me r-right now. C-student terms, p-please?"

I sighed; why can people not keep up with me? My line of thought was not that hard to comprehend. "Bottom line: this has to be about Shroud," I said, jumping to the punch-line.

"How are you—are you sure?" she asked.

I bit my lip. The last thing I wanted to tell her was about my conversation with Mr. Ace a week ago. This little note was a golden opportunity to spy on him and discover what he was withholding from me. I could care less how much he felt about me being involved; I wanted in. That was final.

"I'm sure. Maybe it's me being hypersensitive, but something is _definitely_ going on with Mr. Ace," I said stubbornly.

Suddenly, the librarian whipped around the corner of a bookshelf. "Ladies, please be quiet. You're in a library," she reprimanded in a harsh whisper. Heat flushed to my cheeks, and I hastily bowed and apologized. Eris did likewise. The librarian huffed in satisfaction and vanished back behind the bookshelf.

Eris and I turned back to each other, our emotions curbed by the librarian's interjection.

"Okay, so…it's most likely a, uh, meeting n-note," she admitted.

"Yeah. Also, you're right. Shroud probably isn't involved. My previous thoughts were most likely me just impressing my feelings about him onto the situation," I acknowledged.

"S-So, we should just leave this here, then," Eris stated, moving to slip the paper back into the book.

I shook my head. "No, we can take it with us. I noticed that the paper was already crumpled a little bit, especially in the bottom left corner. This Icarus guy's already been here and read it. Let's keep it and show it to Ray."

Agreeing with me, Eris took the paper and tucked it into my bag. As she shut the flap, she commented, "M-Mona, h-h-how are you so smart?"

I blushed under my fur. "Eris, d-don't say that! I'm not that smart," I sputtered just like she did.

"Uh-huh," she said, raising an eyebrow at me.

"Eris, did you just sass me?" I said with a chuckle.

"Uh, I did?" she said, utterly clueless.

I laughed softly, shaking my head. While she dumbfoundedly stared at me, I strutted past her and toward the library's entrance. After a few paces, I heard her quickly jog to catch up to me.

"Did I r-really sass you?"

"Eris, it's nothing. Let's get going."

I thanked the librarian, apologized for the noise, and exited the library. We did not need to check out the book; I already had the basic information memorized.

Despite my concession to Eris, my conviction had not wavered. For all purposes, I intended to pursue Shroud. Meeting note or not, I was going to propose that we head out to the Ruins of Eld.

Fresh air assuaged me as I swung the doors open. Bright light poured into my eyes, forcing them to squint. I checked left and right to see if Ray had decided to come back for us, but I did not spy him among the crowd milling around the library.

"Did Ray ever say where he was going to train?" I asked Eris. She shrugged helplessly and shook her head.

"Well, I guess we should head back to the guild. I think it was this way," I said, pointing to our left. We pulled away from the library and headed down the sidewalk. Along our way, we passed a variety of shops: clothing, toys, perfumes, and gadgets. Eris glanced between clothing stores, her excitement visibly building. She eventually dragged me into one such store to peruse the outfits inside of it.

Eris practically sprinted toward the gloves and scarves section. She lingered over items of all colors and designs, skimming them with a critical eye. After swiping a few pairs, she held them up to herself. I laughed a little at her antics, her smiling spreading to me like a disease.

Back at the Oran Forest, we used to do this together on our way home after school if we were let out early. I would walk to town with Eris, where we would frequent the few stores in the town square. We always made a point to stop by Mrs. Ilima's store, where she sold the latest clothing—at least, as new as we could obtain in our backcountry town. I never truly cared clothes shopping, but doing so made Eris so joyful that I consented every time. I do not believe we bought anything except during three or four visits, but Mrs. Ilima never shooed us out of her shop. I like to believe that she enjoyed seeing us come in every so often.

Even though we were so far from home, it was good to see that some things had not changed.

"Mona, w-what do you think?" Eris asked. She had clipped an off-white collar around her neck and had slid a matching pair of gloves on her hands.

I appraised her lightly. "They match," I said after a moment. "They kind of match the tan parts of your skin.

Eris glanced down at the gloves. Without another thought, she flicked them off and reached for another pair, these ones navy. "These, m-maybe?" she asked.

"Nah. How about those?" I said. I pointed to a pair by her right hand: a dull, obnoxious pink that matched with absolutely nothing.

"Mona, you—you can't be serious—!"

"C'mon, try them on!"

"Mona!"

* * *

After an hour of touring around the shops along Main Street, we ended up near the eastern entrance of town. A wooden barricade cordoned off the area, and I spotted a few pokémon milling around the message on the ground.

 _"This is only the beginning. The war has begun."_

A shiver passed down my spine. Somehow, I felt that he meant what he said. Why, though?

Another, sudden thought interrupted my previous one. "Oh crap, Eris, we need to go tell the guildmaster about what Kyle and Zane said!" I exclaimed. "I can't believe I forgot."

Eris's eyes widened in remembrance. "Oh. Yeah."

"Let's head back; thank goodness it's still the afternoon," I said, glancing at the sky just to ensure I was correct. Turning back toward the square, we waded through the crowd. Ironfist lay on the southern side of town, but navigation was easier along the more populated roads. Plus, I had lost faith in back alleys after the whole incident with the dewott.

 _Speaking of them, I hope we never have to run into them again_ , I thought.

A loud shout came from up ahead. I attempted to spot what was causing the commotion. My ears picked up more indecipherable shouting until one sentence came to me clearly: "Somebody stop him!"

My fur immediately raised. I dashed to the edge of the sidewalk and leaned out onto the street. A tauros cart blocked my view momentarily, so when it passed, I hardly had time to react to what I saw.

Zane, my detect band fluttering around his neck, was fleeing down the street. The bandages that had been wrapped around him before were all but gone, sans the one on his tail. People were trying to reach for him, but he dodged out of their grips like his feet danced on air.

"Zane!" I cried involuntarily as he rushed toward me. His head snapped to me, and a smug grin crept onto his face. When he passed by me, he winked slyly, then dashed straight to the barricade. He leapt over it, then turned south, thereby avoiding the crowd around the crime scene. By the time the cops noticed him, he was too far gone.

My feet had barely left the sidewalk by the time he had left the city's boundaries. Astonished, I gaped at the entrance for a solid three seconds before swearing angrily.

"Curse him! Arrggh!" I growled, stamping my foot. _How could he run like that? He was nearly dead yesterday! That's…that's impossible._

Eris sighed. "I knew we shouldn't h-have trusted, uh, t-trusted him."

I glared at the breloom. She shirked before the intensity of it, looking away from me. The last thing I needed to hear was vindication of my true feelings. As the cops vainly attempted to chase after Zane, I whirled my back to him and stalked along the sidewalk. Eris struggled to catch up with me, who could easily weave between the gaps in the crowd.

All the while, my heart weighed heavily in my chest. Impossibility or no, I had allowed Zane the opportunity to escape because I was weak—too weak to stand up to him. My claws extended on their own, digging into the cracks in the cobblestone.

"M-Mona, p-please…," Eris said, finally catching up to me. Emotions boiling, I halted without facing her.

"Eris, just don't," I said. As frustrated as my feelings were, I did not want to say anything that I would later regret.

Eris must have understood my implied sentiment because she said nothing back to me. Retracting my claws, I continued my saunter back to the guild. I heard Eris patter after me. When we arrived at the guild, she was the one who spoke to Walter to let us inside the building. I passed through the gate without a moment's hesitation, trying to calm myself before meeting with the guildmaster.

* * *

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	13. Chapter 12: Journey East

**\- Chapter 12: Journey East -**

 _Knock. Knock. Knock._

My paw rapped on the guildmaster's door patiently. Ray leaned against the wall, his fur still a little sweaty from his workout and a towel draped around his neck. Luckily for us, he had been in the training hall, and we had met as he had exited from the facility. We asked him to come with us to the guildmaster's room because he would want to hear what we had to say. He seemed curious enough that he agreed to come with us.

During that time, I had managed to stabilize my emotions. Frustration still broiled within me about Zane's escape, but I simply had to compartmentalize the issue.

However, Eris's disdain still stung me smartly.

"Enter!" the guildmaster called from within the room. In self-amusement, I wondered if he ever left his room; in our past few visits, we've caught him in his room.

 _That's a really poor way to phrase that, Mona_ , I thought.

Eris pushed the door open for us, its heavy wood giving her a bit of a struggle. Once Ray and I had entered, she shoved it closed.

"Ah, Team Advent. You've spoken with those two, I assume?" the guildmaster asked us. He had his back partially facing us like he had been bent over his desk moments prior.

"Yeah, we did," I said, glossing over the fact that Ray had not been with us—not an important detail.

"Come. Sit. Tell me what you learned," he ordered. He sat down on a large mat before the desk. The three of us lay down on three of the several other mats on the floor. Once we had all been settled, I began to recount my knowledge of what had happened to Kyle and Zane. I made sure to point out that they both remembered being attacked by a black figure and that Zane had been held prisoner in the mountains for some point of time. The guildmaster remained silent throughout my entire story.

When I was near the end, I concluded, "Based on this information, I put together that Zane was held near Sky Peak. Whatever Shroud's objective seems to be there."

The guildmaster stood and paced behind his desk. "So, what you are saying is that the little message outside of town is nothing more than a distraction."

I paused when he said that. I had never considered the fact that Shroud could have been lying when he wrote that message. He could have kept Kyle and Zane alive to merely fixate people on the supposed issue at hand while secretly doing something completely different.

"Either way, this confirms my thought beforehand that Shroud is operating primarily in the mountains, specifically the Continental Divide," the guildmaster said. He rose from his mat and paced to behind his desk.

"Guildmaster, sir?" I asked.

"Yes?"

"I forgot to add that Zane said Shroud was seeking to 'break' something in some ruins. They could be his objective," I explained.

The guildmaster pondered my information for a moment. Then, a levi-pen lifted off his desk and scrawled something on a piece of paper. "That would have been something to lead out with," he said.

"I'm sorry," I apologized, my ears tucking back a little bit.

The guildmaster muttered something about greenhorns; then, the levi-pen fell back on the desk. "Either way, you've brought some critical information. This will help us in our search for him. You're dismissed."

I bowed my head to him and stood to leave. Eris made for the door, and Ray slung his towel out and shook his fur a little bit. While Eris swung the door open and Ray exited the room, I turned around and asked, "Guildmaster, what do you plan to do to deal with Shroud?"

His claws curled some. "Trap him, catch him, and bring him to justice," he said tightly. Without further talk, he whirled his back to us and leaning over his desk. Taking that as a sign to leave, I followed Ray out the door, and Eris pulled it shut behind us.

As soon as the door closed, I exhaled in relief. Ray wrapped his towel around his neck again and said, "I thought you guys were kidding earlier, but that was kind of interesting. Minorly. But still."

"I'm just surprised that he wasn't a little more shocked," I said.

"Well, Team Crescent did start talking to him about the Ruins of Eld," Eris offered.

"You're right. It's like he wanted something more from us," I muttered, staring at the ground in thought.

"But he said that we confirmed his suspicions," Eris said, looking confused.

"I know. Still…," I said, my reasoning hitting a wall. Shrugging, I finished, "Well, usefulness or not, we still made a somewhat good impression on him. That's got to mean something, right?"

"Not really," Ray said stubbornly.

"Thanks for the vote of confidence, Ray."

"You're welcome."

"Now, what was that thing you were going to show me?" he asked.

"Thing to…? Oh, that, yeah! Let's get dinner. We'll show it to you then," I said.

"The dinner gong hasn't even—"

 _Bong. Bong. Bong. Bong._

I raised an eyebrow at him. He huffed, denying his defeat. Myself leading us, we entered into the mess hall. As one of the first in line, we got the freshest picks. My mouth watered at the smell of fresh, hot berries and my new favorite food: cheese biscuits.

I made sure Eris grabbed me two.

As Eris and Ray brought the food over to the table, I slung my bag onto the seat and pulled out the note that we had retrieved from that archeology book. Pushing my back to the ground, I jumped on my seat and quietly said grace.

 _You know, Mona, you should be satisfied. You've played a role in bringing down Shroud_ _,_ I thought. Maybe I should, but I was not satisfied at all. I had to do more. I had to, which is why I needed to show Ray that note.

"Alright, Ray, here's the note," I said, spitting the note onto the table. Grabbing on the opposite side of where my teeth had been, he flipped the note over and read it. Immediately, he froze.

"W-What's wrong?" Eris asked.

Ray's paws quivered ever so slightly. Unresponsive, he gently lay the note on the table and continued to examine it. Eris and I exchanged a surprised look. I had never thought Ray could actually look shaken; his personality made him seem like a rock-hard, grim-faced statue.

"Where did you find this?" he asked tersely. His eyes shot up to meet mine, and I balked at the intensity behind them.

"In the library. We think it's a meeting note," I said quickly. _Woah, he's dialed up a few hundred notches_ , I thought.

"Explain," he demanded.

"Ray, are you—?"

" _Just spill_ ," he utters aggressively. At our stunned reaction, he sighed and rubbed his face, adding, "Please."

Glancing at Eris, I detailed what we had guessed about the meeting note, starting from how we heard Mr. Ace speak of it to the guildmaster and ending it with how it could connect with Shroud. Eris seemed displeased at my of mentioning Shroud, but I still did anyway. One little talk with her was not going to make me give him up—not anytime soon.

"You really think so?" Ray asked us at the end of my spiel.

"Not one-hundred-percent sure, but pretty sure," I said. "I'm honestly curious about it all; I never knew Mr. Ace had all of these connections."

Ray set the note down on the table, his eyes glued to its words. His paw strayed up to his collar fur, where it twisted it around its fingers.

"Were you guys planning on going to spy on this meeting?" he asks out of the blue.

Eris reeled back at what he was insinuating. "No, n-no, not at all," she sayed, trying to insert her opinion as if it reflected my own as well.

"Actually, I kind of did want to see it," I said none-too-reluctantly. Here was my moment to push my position. I never expected Ray to potentially ally with me, but if he was demonstrating the possibility, I was sure as heck going to take it.

"Mona, we c-can't!" Eris protests.

"And why not? Can't you see that this is a good chance to see if we can get any leads on Shroud?" I argued back. "This could be a great chance to see what Team Crescent is hiding from us."

"Why? W-Why do that? You—You heard what K-Kyle said! He said…He said that we'd die if we w-went after Shroud!"

"And who do you think we are?" I said abruptly. She paused, her mouth open; then, she closed it in puzzlement.

"We're explorers," I answered for her. " _These_ are the risks we are obligated to take. Shroud is a criminal, and he killed Lucy! How could you not want justice for that?"

Eris sputtered a bit at my revisiting of a previous point. I had hit a nerve in both of us, and I did so intentionally. She withdrew into herself as the emotions from earlier today crossed her visage.

"So that's it, then," Ray interjected. "That's why you're so invested in this criminal: you want vengeance."

Instead of glaring at him for calling me out, I coolly met his gaze. Then, I return my attention to Eris.

"Well, Eris? You in or not?" I posed to her.

"W-W…What are we going to do with the information we get?" she questioned back.

I barely hesitated in my reply. "We'll give it to the guildmaster or to some really good bounty hunters. Team Crescent is _clearly_ holding something out from the guildmaster if they haven't caught Shroud by now. All I want is to get enough information so that Shroud can be easily captured."

I thought back to how Maple was talking about the Ruins of Eld. She said that they had found nothing, so why was Mr. Ace meeting with someone in those very same ruins? The whole situation sounded alarm bells in my head.

Under direct pressure from me and indirect pressure from Ray, Eris crumbled. Reluctantly, she uttered, "F-Fine. We'll go, but Ray…why d-do you, uh, want to go this b-b-badly?"

"What's it to you? Sounds like your friend's legacy is on the line," Ray said edgily. Normally, I would have probed into his dodging of the question, but I glossed over that fact. I was not going to bite the hand that was feeding me.

A rare expression of frustration passed over Eris's face. Her brows furrowed slightly, and her throat visibly tightened. Then, sighing, she relaxed her posture.

"…Alright," she conceded, "but w-we have…we…we have got t-to be careful."

"Duh," Ray said with a roll of his eyes. He glanced back down at the note. "So, the 21st. What day is it today?"

"The 7th," I said after a moment of thought.

"So, we have two weeks. We leave tomorrow, then," he said.

"Well, crap, we hardly have anything," I said worriedly. "We have to get canteens, food, water, and…what are we going to use as an excuse? Well…we can take two really easy jobs."

"We can't waste time," Ray rebuked.

"We also have barely any money. We have to think ahead a little," I said right back.

"I'd rather not starve," Ray muses, tacitly consenting.

"Okay, it's decided. I'll go head out now and get some food since I forgot to do it earlier," I said, shouldering my bag. Ray shook his head as he picked up his dinner plate.

"Market shops close up at dinnertime. It'll have to be tomorrow morning," he said.

Eris, sulking, rose from her seat and grabbed my and her plates. When Ray passed by her, she followed him to the trash can. They dumped their scraps and set the trays on a ledge attached to the trash can. Together, we shuffled to our room in the members' hall and crashed in our beds, our future plans bearing down on our psyches.

* * *

My eyes opened to a stunningly beautiful sky. Clouds dotted its expanse in poufy dollops, its white softening the sky's deep blue. The sun peeked out from behind a sizeable cloud, prepared to once again engulf the land in its warming rays.

I dropped my gaze to the ground. The grass underneath me paled in comparison to the sky above me; it held no vividness in its gray-brown complexion. Extending a paw, I pressed it onto the grass and felt the stiff stems prick my pads. I continued to force my paw to the ground and watched as the blades of grass easily snapped into pieces.

Sucking in a breath, I raised my head and roamed it around me. I recognized the wilting fields and rotting fences that surrounded me on all sides. The resolute, yet crumbling farmhouse mere yards away from me only cemented my realization further.

 _I'm dreaming. I'm back here again._

I recalled the last time that I had been here. There had been darkness and destruction across the entire farm. However, these fields bore no trace of their previous annihilation. The sun shone brightly overhead as if in defiance of the very darkness that had consumed it prior.

 _It's like nothing happened. Maybe nothing_ did _happen. This is another dream, after all._

 _Or is it...something else?_

My stomach clenched tightly. If this was another nightmare, then I could do nothing about it. I did not know how to awaken myself; I was not like psychic pokémon who could control their minds like I could control my forelegs.

Sighing angrily at myself, I skimmed the fields once more. I noticed that the farm gently sloped downwards to my left, ending at the cusp of a valley. The mountains in the near distance seemingly isolated this lonely plantation from the rest of the world.

In the soft breeze, I heard someone sob to my left. Curious, I turned towards the sound and noticed that the same ralts that I had seen last time was perched on a fence. She had not been singing like I had expected; rather, her mouth repeatedly emitted soft wails and choked gasps. I could not spy her eyes from under her thick green bangs, but I could clearly see the tears that spilled rapidly from them.

My heart throbbed painfully at such a miserable sight. Without thinking, I stepped forward; then, I stopped and thought about what I was doing. The last time I had tried to speak to her, she had fled in fear.

I watched the ralts again as she wretchedly sobbed once more. I desperately yearned to comfort her, yet I was not certain that she would behave any differently than last time.

 _I would harm more than help her if I tried to talk to her._

I shook my head dejectedly and left the ralts alone. As I dropped my gaze to the ground, I paused in deep thought.

 _I'm treating this all as if it were actually real. I know I'm dreaming, but this all feels so lucid and realistic. Heck, even my thought process is like I'm awake! This can't be normal, right?_

I dismissively shrugged my shoulders.

 _Eh, this is probably happening because I'm stressed out. As much of a worrywart as I am, I probably shouldn't worry about something that I can't control._

Dissatisfied yet content, I raised my head, and my eyes landed on the farmhouse. Like before, its exterior barely held itself together, the fungi and rot blemishing the warped, gray wood.

 _This place is really dead. Funny, though. I can't—wait. That's right; I remember now. This entire farm perfectly matched with the description in_ Gilded Tears _. I don't recall the book ever describing the farmhouse; it just jumped straight to the battle._

As soon as I finished my thought, a faint tromping like marching feet tickled my eardrums. The sound rang from opposing sides of my range of hearing like two armies were preparing to clash.

 _The battle!_

My heart leaped into my throat, and my stomach filled in the empty space. Eyes darting from side to side, I frantically searched the tan brown terrain for any feasible means of cover. My eyes landed on an upside-down wheelbarrow lying in a dip in the ground far away from the farmhouse, which I knew would be utterly obliterated in the foreboding battle.

After another quick scan, I found no other viable hiding spot and resigned myself to the wheelbarrow. Without wasting another second, I sprinted across the fields as closely to the ground as I could manage. I ducked under the wheelbarrow when I reached it and curled into a tight ball.

 _This is hardly safe, but I can't just hide in the grass. Oh, please, let me wake up. I don't want to see this at all…_

The sound of marching feet drew closer to my hiding spot. I pinned my ears under my forepaws to attempt to block out the noise, but the vibrations still throbbed in the pit of my eardrums.

At once, the marching tapered into silence. I bit my lip, fighting to control my curiosity. After a few seconds of vain struggle, I uncovered my ears and peered through a crack in the wheelbarrow's side.

Two grand armies opposed each other on my right and left. Shining armor, fitted perfectly to each soldier's body, gleamed in the sunlight. Squadrons upon squadrons of pokémon stretched back as far as I could see from my limited vantage point. A mile of unoccupied space laid between the armies, seemingly short in comparison to the size of the armies on its ends.

My mouth dropped open in sheer amazement. The book never delved deeply into the armies' appearance; it only mentioned that they were massive in size and wore armor.

 _My mind must be filling in the details. I hope it doesn't fill in all of them._

A powerful horn call broke the silence. I instinctively ducked back into the recesses of the wheelbarrow, my heart fluttering rapidly in my throat.

Another horn call echoed the first. Almost in synch, the two armies began to rush towards each other. Guttural shouts and raucous whoops rang out among the front linesmen. As they drew closer, the soldiers charged elemental attacks of varying types and power.

My eyes widened in horror. I could not bring myself to tear myself away from the fast-approaching battle.

 _Oh my Arceus, no! Wake up! Wake up!_

With a resounding clash, the two armies brutally collided. The front line dissolved into a tangle of armor and flesh as soldiers indiscriminately hacked and slashed at the opposing side. Flying pokémon slashed at each other in dangerous aerial brawls. Others still flung fireballs and shining beams of light at the enemy with haphazard accuracy.

I crouched lower to the ground as the fighting shifted towards where I was hiding. Without warning, the farmhouse ignited in fierce flame. The fire licked its dry walls, consuming them in its ravenous hunger. To my horror, the building morphed into my school. I remembered myself struggling to escape the collapsing medical wing and desperately trying to flee from the burning corridors.

 _No… No… Make it stop!_

I buried my head in neck scruff and bundled myself more tightly.

 _Just wake up, Mona! WAKE UP!_

 _"Ai-eeeee!"_

My head shot upwards when I heard the high-pitched, piercing scream.

"The ralts! She's still on the fence!" I gasped aloud, my voice altered by that strange echo from my last dream.

Through a crack in the wood, I spied a scizor clutching the ralts in his claws. A shadow from a cloud had fallen over him, casting his armor in a darkness. His red claws were squeezing the ralts, who was screaming in pain.

Something broke inside of me. Brazenly, I burst out from under the shelter of the wheelbarrow and charged at the scizor.

"Stop!" I shouted.

 _The ralts didn't die. She didn't die. She lived. She lived!_

The gap between me in the scizor only seemed lengthen. The ralts's screams intensified as her attacker squeezed harder.

 _She didn't die. She_ shouldn't _die._

As I vainly strained to reach the ralts, the background faded away into darkness. My feet pushed against solid nothingness.

 _She shouldn't die._

I no longer saw a ralts in the scizor's claws. I saw Lucy; she was squirming, trying to break free. She spotted me and screamed a deaf scream, her fighting increasing in desperation. Tears streamed liberally down her face.

 _She doesn't deserve to die!_

The scizor was gone. In his place was a figure in a deep black cloak. A dark cackle emanated from the figure. It raised it free hand, and a shadowy energy encased the hand. Before I could shout again, the hand ruthlessly lashed at Lucy and stabbed her skull. Her body immediately fell slack, collapsing in the murderer's grip.

I halted in fear. The figure carelessly dropped her body into the void. The cackling grew louder until it pounded against my eardrums. Slowly turning around, the figure faced me and began to walk towards me.

 ** _Mona._**

I could not move; my legs had frozen in place.

"No!" I said. "Get away from me!"

The figure reached me. He extended a hand towards me, its bloody claws splayed apart to grab me.

 ** _MONA._**

 _"NO!"_

 _**YOU'RE MINE.**_

* * *

I violently awoke, my body tremoring uncontrollably. My paw pads and nose were drenched in a cold sweat.

 _Holy crap. I… I…_

I breathed steadily in and out to calm myself. I kept my eyes wide open lest haunting images from my nightmare appear.

 _What is wrong with me?_ I thought as I slowly regained control of my quaking limbs. Rubbing my nose on my leg, I wiped my paw pads on the fabric of my bed. These past two nights had given me the worst nightmares in the past two years.

Running my tongue across the roof of my dry mouth to moisten it, I rolled over on my bed and sighed deeply. Ray and Eris breathed evenly alongside me, fortunately not having awoken due to my nightmare.

 _Is stress getting to me?_ I wondered. Indeed, a lot had happened in the past three weeks. I had hardly given myself a chance to rest. My heart sunk when I realized that I had barely mourned Lucy outside of her funeral service.

 _How selfish can I get?_ I mentally mocked myself. Right then, I decided to say a meaningful prayer for Lucy and her wellbeing in heaven. At the end, I added that I would do my best to bring her killer to justice, ignoring the slightly sour taste in my mouth. My heart mildly allayed, I flopped my head back onto my bed and let it loll to my left. Eyes easily closing, I quickly slipped back into the world of dreams, plagued no further by nightmares.

When I next awoke, an odd refreshment settled over me. A clear goal shined before me. My half-hearted pursuit of Shroud could now become a full-hearted drive. A smile tickled the corners of my mouth, and my paws wiggled anxiously.

Eris, Ray, and I quickly devoured breakfast; then, we ventured to the Job Bulletin board to select our two jobs as an excuse for being gone so long. We chose two relatively easy jobs:

 _Client: Trevor (Herdier)_

 _Dungeon: Sparse Copse_

 _Description: Lost pecha scarf on 6F. Needed for sister's birthday as present. Retrieve scarf._

 _Difficulty Rank: D_

 _Reward: 350 Poké + Luminous Orb_

 _Client: Tucker (Politoed)_

 _Dungeon: Mt. Horn_

 _Description: Seeks to perform research on soil in dungeon and outside of dungeon. Wants guards to protect from dungeon pokémon. Requests meeting in nearby Arbor Town prior to entering dungeon._

 _Difficulty Rank: C_

 _Reward: 450 Poké_

I had protested the rank-C job, but Ray insisted on us picking it. I guess he was still upset with us for choosing our first job as an E rank.

Before we left, I stopped by the post office on the first floor of the guild. They provided me with some paper, and I wrote a truncated letter to my parents. I hastily recounted the events of the past two weeks, excluding mention of the dewott. After I had signed and sealed the letter, I suddenly wondered how they would react when they read that I had allowed Ray to join our team. The post office worker had already taken the letter to back, so what was written was what would be sent—hopefully without consequences.

We then ventured to the nearest open-air market, conveniently located two blocks south of the guild. Using some of our leftover funds from the selling of the gold ribbon, we purchased bread and dried berries. Inside a nearby outdoor equipment store, we bought three water canteens and a slumber orb in the discount rank. We filled the water canteens in a communal drinking fountain back at the market.

Planning out our route, we decided to tackle the job in Sparse Copse first, then the one in Mt. Horn, and finally our objective in the Ruins of Eld near Sky Peak last. Since the east entrance was still blockaded, we opted to leave through the northern entrance of town. We would then curve east and head diagonally toward the Sparse Copse dungeon, which lay just south of one of the most well-known dungeons on the continent: Waterfall Cave. The journey would take nearly three days on foot if we put a huff in our stride. Traveling from Sparse Copse to Mt. Horn would consume much more time, considering that we would have to cross the Continental Divide.

All of our rations stored in my treasure bag, we marched through the northern district of town, exiting into the docks. Heading east through them, we broke out into the plains skirting the city and began our long trek in the heat. With regret, I mused that we should have bought hats to cover our eyes in the unwavering sun.

The tall grass of the plain complicated our travel speed. I was forced to leap-walk most of the way; thankfully, Eris relieved me of my bag soon into our journey so that I could move more liberally. Silently, I envied that Ray could push the grass aside with his arms, thereby avoiding the problem with which I had to deal.

At night, we slept in the draws that spotted the plain. It was then that I felt grateful for the tall grass as it provided ample cushioning for a decently relaxing sleep. When I glanced up to the sky, I noticed how many stars filled in the dark heavens. I had smiled softly to myself; the light from Treasure Town had obfuscated many of them. I never realized how much I had missed them until I had them again.

An hour or so after noon on our third day of travel, we reached a river that wound north of the Sparse Copse dungeon. Crying out in joy, I charged to the bank and leapt excitedly into the water. I greedily swallowed several gulps of water, relishing it as it moistened my dry throat. I stayed beneath the surface as long as my lungs would permit; then, I resurfaced with a gasp.

Eris, who had knelt by the water's edge and was drinking heavily, raised her head as I crawled out of the water. "Heh… You look like you…just evolved into a, um, vaporeon," she said, a hint of laughter in her voice.

 _Evolved into a vaporeon._

"Yeah, huh? How about now?" I said challengingly. Splaying my legs wide, I wildly shook out my fur, purposefully spraying her with thousands of water droplets.

"Ah!" she yelled playfully. She jumped away from me, her hands protectively covering her eyes. I chuckled and turned back toward the water. The face of an eevee stared back.

 _It will always be this way._

Waves rippled over the image, distorting it into a mangled mess.

 _It will never change._

The eevee seemed to grimace at me behind the jumbled web of waves.

 _I will always be the same._

"Mona?"

I snapped out of my reverie. "Yeah, Eris?" I said, cocking my head toward her.

She frowned worriedly. "Are…you okay?"

I smiled broadly. "I'm fine," I lied. I bent down to lap some more water. I felt Eris's stare bore into my back, but she did not say anything further.

 _Dangit. I let my guard slip. Be more careful,_ I chastised myself. _She could start asking questions that you can't answer._

I pulled back from the water. "We should keep going. If we follow the river for a little while longer, then turn south, we should reach it before nightfall," I explained.

"Okay," Eris replied, the skepticism in her voice as clear as day. As I trod up the bank, I could feel her stare boring into my back. I tried to ignore it and focused on searching for Ray. I found him reclining in the shade of a pile of rocks, his toes suspended above the water.

"Ray, we need to keep going. We're almost there," I said.

He opened his left eye, which was facing me. "A little longer," he said.

Holding back my impatience, I said, "The longer the we wait, the more we'll have to explore the dungeon in the dark."

Ray closed his eye and leaned his head farther back. "Who said we have to explore the dungeon the dark?" At my exasperated expression, he waved his paw dismissively and continued, "I'm resting here, regardless of whatever you say to me. My feet are sore, and don't tell me that yours aren't, too."

Sighing, I plopped onto my haunches. Long days of hard travel had cramped my paws, and soreness lingered in my legs from steadily traveling uphill. I did need a break, even if only for a short while.

"Okay, we can rest here for a little bit," I conceded. Ray huffed as if it say that our argument had been pointless _._ Not like I would agree.

We relaxed at the riverbank for what I judged was half an hour. I moved under the shade of a nearby tree to escape the sunlight. A mildly cool breeze soothingly tousled my fur. My body virtually melted onto the dirt, and I exhaled deeply in pleasure.

Eventually, I forced myself to my paws. Checking the position of the sun in the sky, I called out to Ray and Eris, "I think we've had long enough. Let's get going; we don't have much longer until nightfall."

I heard a grumble and movement from behind the rock pile. Ray pulled himself out into the open, stretching out his arms and sucking in a deep breath.

I glanced over at Eris. Unsurprisingly, she had fallen asleep under the shade of a tree. Her legs and arms laid sprawled over the ground, and a snore emanated from deep in her throat.

"Great. She fell asleep," Ray said behind me.

After awakening her with my typical slap-to-the-head-hat routine, we resumed our trek to Sparse Copse. Thankfully, walking alongside a river meant that would drink water whenever we pleased. After some time, I checked over the wonder map.

"We should be right north of it. If we head south-southeast for ten or so minutes, we'll reach it," I said.

"Sh-Shouldn't we wait until tomorrow…when it'll, uh, you know, b-be lighter?" Eris asked.

"It's still an hour and a half 'till sundown. We can make it through the dungeon in time," I said.

"Seconded," Ray added right after me.

Majority ruled. We headed further south, keeping our eyes peeled for any unnaturally warped bushes and trees. In my search, I noticed that the trees' leaves had already turned yellow, some even being brown. My brows creased in confusion. Autumn would not arrive for another two months, so the leaves should still be a vibrant green.

"Eris, do these trees look sick to you?" I asked the breloom.

"Y-Yeah," she breathed, scanning around her slowly. We both knew from being reared in a forest that yellow leaves outside of season pointed to a terrible cause: tree disease. I had only witnessed a few sick trees in a concentrated area, and the community had cut those down before the disease could spread further. Never had I been surrounded by so many diseased trees in my entire life.

Furthermore, some of the trees sported discoloration in their bark. Some had even withered away already, the remains of their once-luscious canopies scattered about bases of their trunks.

"How could this have gotten so out of hand?" I muttered to myself.

"I, uh, don't know," Eris said with a clueless shrug.

"Is this really that bad?" Ray asked with a skeptic glance.

"Very. At this rate, the whole forest could die," I said with a darkly serious tone. Ray's eyes roved over the forest once again with a slightly more worrisome, though no less aloof, attitude.

"How reassuring."

We forged deeper into the woods. After nearly tripping over a root, I spotted a dense thicket of trees. A particular few grew toward each other in a warped fashion, forming a shoddy arch. A lone rose bush perched at the base of one of the trees, its perfect buds at odds with its deformed branches.

"That has to be it," I said resolutely, pointing with the foreleg that I did not stub on the aforementioned root.

Eris gulped when she spotted the unnatural plant life. Noticing this, I asked, "You good, Eris?"

"Uh, um, y-yeah. It's, uh, just going to be n-night soon," she said. My mouth formed a silent "O" in understanding. As a breloom, Eris possessed poor night vision. Having somewhat decent night vision, I could little understand her feelings. Was it like walking around with a blindfold over your eyes?

 _Focus, Mona_ , I told myself.

"We'll be through quickly," I said, my reassurance sounding half-hearted even to me.

Ray took a step forward as if to head to the dungeon, but he flung his arm out toward us and froze. Alarmed, we froze as well, our eyes scanning the area around us.

"Ray, what is it—?" I started to ask.

"Shh," he said, cutting me off. He closed his eyes, the appendages on the sides of his head elevating ever so slightly. Suddenly, his left paw snapped up from his side, an orange hue forming over it. The trees rustled, and I heard the scratching of claws on bark. Ray's eyes flew open, and powerful shock waves launched from his glowing palm. They blasted into the branches where the rustling had been, scoring the bark and blowing away the leaves.

"Dangit, he's gone," Ray said as soon as the air had settled. My mouth gaped at him and the power he had displayed.

 _He can use Force Palm like that?_ I thought. _How good is he, really?_

Another, darker line of thought crossed my mind. _If he's so strong, why did he decide to join our team? Admittedly, I did foolishly offer the position to him, but he had every chance to decline._ A sour taste built up in the back of my throat. Swallowing it distastefully, I returned my attention to the riolu, who had lowered his left arm back to his side.

"We should get going. At this point, we're going to finish it in the middle of the night," Ray said.

"W-Wait, then, uh, shouldn't we wait until—until morning?" Eris asked the both of us.

I glanced up to the dungeon. Dryly, I said, "Yeah, it'd be best to set up camp at this point. I don't exactly—"

"No, we need to do this now. We don't have the time," Ray pushed. He began striding toward the dungeon.

Grunting, I called out to him: "Ray, hold up! We shouldn't rush into this; we're tired from walking all day!"

"I'm not tired, so I'm going to keep going. Stay here if you want," he spat without glancing back at us. He paused momentarily before the dungeon, then swept inside it. His hand brushed the rose bush, shaking a petal off a withering bud.

"Gosh darnit, that guy! I swear…," I growled. "C'mon, Eris; we're going after him."

"But—But Mona…," Eris protested.

"Eris, we don't have the time to talk. Ray's going to get himself knocked out if we don't follow after him," I said rapidly. Eris stared at me in indecision, then slowly nodded in understanding. Without further delay, I darted toward the dungeon, Eris moving after me more reluctantly.

My tail swatted the withering bud on the rose bush, dashing its remaining petals to the ground. There they settled in an unmoving, dismal heap.

* * *

As my vision returned to me, trees sprung up in impenetrable masses, shaping rooms and corridors with their bulk. Short grass, mixed with roots and rocks, emerged from the dirt floor. A chill breeze wove in between the trees, echoing eerily. Twilight shrouded us like fog, attributing a looming quality to the swaying branches.

Eerie silence hung in the air. Save for the wind, nothing stirred in the forest. A shiver crawled down my spine.

 _Get a grip, Mona. It's nothing_ , I told myself.

"Well? Are we going to stand here, or are we actually going to go find that camp?" Ray asked, his arms crossed. Without waiting for an answer, he jogged over to a nearby corridor and poked his head in it.

Shaking my own head, I trotted over to him. Eris, who had grabbed her tail in her paws, nervously scanned the trees as if a horde of feral pokémon lingered just beyond the range of sight.

"Eris, come on," I urged her.

Eris's eyes connected with mine, and I saw fear dancing in their depths.

"Hey, don't be afraid. It's only twilight out," I reassured.

Eris grasped her tail tighter, then began creeping toward me. "It's…It's not the darkness I'm afraid of… It's what's…behind it."

"Then, it's all the better that we _move forward_ ," Ray stressed. "I really don't see what your problem is. It's just a bunch of trees and bushes. Get over it."

Checking the corridor one last time, Ray ducked inside of it. I waited for Eris to work up the courage to enter it before stepping inside of it myself.

"Don't mind him, Eris. He's obviously worked up right now," I whispered to her.

"Y-Yeah, I guess," she said.

The dungeon's oppressive ambience worsened in the confined limits of the corridor. I found myself unwittingly staring at the shadows between the trees, not hoping, yet expecting, something to leap out and attack me.

 _Why am I being so irrational?_ I thought. _It's just late in the evening._ Nothing more _than that._

After a silent minute of travel, we reached a fork in the path. Ray checked both sides, then turned left. Instantly, from out of the shadows, a silhouette dove from around the right-hand corner and smashed into Eris, who had shifted to walk behind Ray. She emitted a shrill cry as she tumbled to the ground.

The surprise attack shocked me. "Eris! Get off her!" I shouted at the feral pokémon. Dark-type energy formed around my fangs into a fierce Bite. I leapt boldly at the pokémon and sunk my teeth into its shoulder.

It growled in pain and whipped its head around to bite me back. I leaned away from its snapping teeth and sunk my teeth in further, disregarding the taste of fur in my mouth.

A glowing fist whammed into its jaw and snapped its head upward. I disengaged my jaw as the feral rolled off to the side, unconscious. I had hardly identified the pokémon as a linoone before it vanished into thin air.

I hurried scanned Eris for any signs of wounds. Thankfully, she only appeared to have a small cut on her shoulder that was barely oozing any blood. Eris herself was breathing heavily, her eyes squeezed tightly shut.

"You going to be okay, Eris?" I asked her concernedly.

She gulped once, then opened her eyes. "M-Maybe this wasn't such a good idea…"

In the back of my mind, amidst the throbbing headache, a part of me timidly agreed with her. None of us had seen that coming. Even Ray appeared mildly unsettled behind that stone mask of his.

"We just have to find that pecha scarf on the sixth floor, then we can be out of here," I said. She shakily nodded and pushed herself slowly to her feet. Too late, I wondered if we should have brought an escape orb. Who knew how long this dungeon would extend?

We resumed traveling along the corridor, advancing much more cautiously. Ray decided to move to the back of our pack while I shifted forward to guard the front.

The fourth room we entered contained the stairs to the next floor. Barely any sunlight graced the area; instead, faint moonlight stained the ground silver. I checked the floor for any signs of a lurking feral before signaling to Eris and Ray that we could proceed.

As soon as I entered the room, loud screeches abruptly split the silence. They assailed my eardrums, forcing me to pin my ears back against my head. I raised my head to sky and gasped; a flock of woobat had flown out from the trees and was diving at us.

"Hurry!" I screamed, breaking out into a sprint toward the stairs. We had barely finished climbing them before I heard the woobat descend in a flurry past us. Their screeches cut off sharply as the dungeon transported us to the second floor.

I tumbled ungraciously the ground, rocks and sticks poking me through my fur. Spitting out dirt, I panted, "That was close."

"No kidding," Ray muttered. "Now we have to add sadistic woobat to the list of dangers in this place."

"We were keeping a list?" I asked sarcastically. Ray simply rolled his eyes back at me.

After we regained our breath and stamina, we entered into the only corridor that led out from our room. The rest of the floor passed by without any special event with the exception of us finding some poké and an escape orb.

 _Well, that solved my problem_ , I had thought as Eris slipped the orb into my bag.

When we landed on the third floor, a pressure built up in the back of my head. I squinted my eyes shut and breathed out deeply.

 _Another headache. Great_ , I thought in frustration.

In a stealthy manner, we crawled through the fourth and fifth floors. The feeling of malice that the dungeon exuded only worsened with each passing floor. I had to fight to prevent my fur from rising on its ends. Eris clutched her tail tightly to her chest, and her eyes frantically shot toward every minute sound in the forest. When we reached the stairs to the sixth floor, she practically ran up them.

As soon as we arrived at the next floor, I asked, "Eris, are you okay?"

She bit her lip and hugged her tail closer to herself. "I'm just, um, well… This place is…really scary. It feels so…so…" She shrugged her shoulders, at a loss for words.

I grimaced. "I don't think you should worry, Eris. There's nothing in here that could outright kill us or anything," I said. For some reason, I felt like I had just lied.

"Yeah…," she whispered. She still clung to her tail.

"Hey, isn't this the floor where that pecha scarf was supposed to be?" Ray interjected.

"Yep: the sixth floor," I said. "I would suggest that we split up, but—"

"I'll take this corridor," Ray said. He pointed to the far end of the room, where a corridor extended deep in the forest. Without waiting for a response, he trotted off toward the path.

"And there he goes again," I said dryly. Another corridor opened up to our left, so Eris and I ventured down it. Along that corridor, I noticed that large quantities of rock had appeared in between the knurled trees and decaying undergrowth.

 _We must be progressing into another location in the real world. That's good,_ I thought.

Room after room passed by with no sigh of the scarf. Eris pocketed a sleep seed in our bag, but that was our only discovery. Eventually, we happened upon the stairs, where Ray was lounging on the bottom two steps.

"Well? Did you find the scarf?" he asked as if it had been our responsibility alone.

Disregarding that jab, I replied, "No. We went through, like, six rooms, but we didn't find it."

Ray's brow creased. He hopped off the stairs and turned toward a nearby corridor. "Well, that's not good. How'd we miss it?"

"Let's do another round," I suggested. Nodding, he disappeared into the corridor in which he was facing. Eris and I backtracked through the dungeon, carefully examining the ground, roots, and branches for any sign of the scarf, even in the corridors. We found nothing.

We returned to the stairs room in much sourer moods. "Let me see that job request," Ray said as soon as he reunited with us. I dropped my bag on the ground and pulled out the rolled-up paper. Ray unraveled it and skimmed over its contents.

"It says the sixth floor! What's up with that?" he muttered.

"I know. It doesn't make any sense. Do you think it's a clerical error?" I asked him.

"How would I know? All I know is that this scarf isn't on this floor," he growled.

Eris pushed herself quietly between us. "G-Guys, how about we, uh, just m-move on to the next floor? We, um, can look for it there."

I shook my head. "I don't know. What if we did miss it? Maybe we should look one more time."

"Naw, I'm fed up. Let's just move on. If the guild messed up with this, then they messed up. It's not our problem," Ray said, thrusting the paper back into my bag. Truthfully, I was very tired. Night had fallen, and my body desperately desired sleep.

"…Alright. Let's go," I said. Ray leading the way, we tromped up the stairs to the seventh floor. An object slammed into me as soon as my paws hit the grass. I tumbled head over paws for several feet, completely dazed by the surprise attack. Groaning, I rolled over onto my side, only to find a set of sharp, illuminated blades poised above my head.

"Pawn!" the feral pawniard above me cried. It swiftly raised its blades and swung then downward at my vulnerable body. I could only stare in fear at the blades; I had no time to dodge them in my prone position.

"Get away from her!" a valiant voice shouted. A green blur punched the pawniard square in the back, propelling it into a tree.

"Eris?" I breathed. Eris stood protectively before me, her face set in an uncharacteristically ferocious expression. Her hands were ignited in a dull orange glow, casting an intimidating shadow on her facial features.

With another yell, she sprinted toward the pawniard and smacked the feral with an uppercut to the jaw before it had the chance to raise its guard. It crashed into the tree again, and a low moan escaped its lips. Unflinchingly, Eris grabbed the pawniard and hurled it into another tree. It flickered out of existence before it hit the ground.

"Holy crap," I whispered. I glanced around me and noticed that Ray was fighting three other pawniard. They had backed him into a corner, and he was warding them off by waving Force Palms in front of him.

Before I had stood to assist him, Eris had already thrown three Seed Bombs at the trio of feral pokémon. While the pawniard's steel typing resisted the grass-type attack, they still grunted in pain and refocused their attention on Eris. Taking advantage of their distraction, Ray swung his fists into their skulls, driving them into the dirt. They faded out of existence a second later.

Sucking in heavy breaths, Ray watched Eris as she calmly advanced toward him. A flicker of shock passed over his face, then disappeared under a mask of indifference.

"Do you have any injuries?" Eris asked Ray, bending down to check him for wounds.

"Yeah, I'm fine," he replied as he sidestepped her. She frowned at his movement but did not otherwise react. Leaving him be, she approached me and crouched down to my eye level.

"Did that pawniard hurt you?" she asked me, a look of concern etched on her face.

"No, I'm fine. You stopped him before he had the chance," I said. _It's happening again. She's acting all confident and unafraid._

"Are _you_ okay, Eris?" I asked. "It's happening again."

Eris tilted her head in confusion. "What do you mean? I'm fine. There's nothing wrong with me," she replied. Standing, she continued, "Now, if there's nothing wrong with either of you, then we should be going." She walked to the nearest corridor, gesturing for Ray and I to follow.

Ray and I exchanged a bewildered look. Shaking his head and muttering something indistinguishable, Ray trailed after Eris. I tailed behind him.

As Eris steered us along the dungeon paths, my mind repeatedly processed Eris's personality change. In my two years of being in school with her, she had never mentioned anything like this. So far, she had only done this in Mystery Dungeons. Was this some kind of forced behavior? Was she just toying with us, making us seem like she was weak? Had she fooled me all these years?

The more I thought about, the worse my head hurt, and it was hurting pretty horribly already.

"There they are," Eris called out, pointing toward something that I could not see. Shifting around Ray, I spotted the stairs near our side of the room. Eris ducked her head around the corners to check for any ferals, then darted out into the open. When she reached the stairs, she examined around her again. After a moment, she signaled to us that the coast was clear. We hastily ran toward the stairs and rushed up them.

My body suddenly ripped forward. My awareness of orientation evaporated like dew in the morning sun. As quickly as the translocation had started, it stopped, jerking my body into motionlessness. The darkness around me receded, replaced by towering walls of rock and stubby, sparse grass. Several trees and bushes sprouted in the near distance. A cold dampness clung to the air, chilling me.

"It's a ravine," Eris explained. "Funny that there should be such large plant growth here, though. It must receive enough sunlight during the daytime."

At that moment, my ears perceived the murmur of voices.

"Quiet, guys. I hear people talking," I said in a low tone. Straining my ears forward, I closed my eyes. Unfortunately, I could not distinguish any words; the speakers must have been too far away.

 _What are people doing down here?_ I wondered.

"I can't make out anything. Those trees must be muffling their words," I told Eris and Ray.

"Let's check it out," Eris said, nodding to me. I stared at her in wonderment for suggesting such a bold move, and she stared back at me in confusion.

"What's the matter?" she asked.

"No—Nothing," I said, turning away from her yet peeking at her out of the corner of my eye. I crept along the rocky floor, moving from cover to cover behind sizeable boulders. Once I reached the trees, I ducked into a low bush, Eris and Ray hiding behind a tree and a rock, respectively.

Now that we were close enough, I could spot the location from which the voices were coming: a modest camp erected along the rock walls of the ravine. A bonfire raged in the center of camp, and several pokémon basked in its heat. To the right of the bonfire, a massive pile of wood was stacked against the wall. A group of stick dummies were planted firmly in the ground near the pile. A victreebel and a leavanny were hurling Leaf Blades at messily-painted targets on the dummies' vitals.

To the left of the bonfire rested a table adorned with plates of withering berries and mildly rancid meat. A couple pokémon conversed near the pile. Further down, several caves recessed into the left wall, presumably the sleeping areas. Between the caves and the training dummies, several stakes protruded from the ground. A noibat was tied to one of them, but other than that pokémon, no others were bound to the stakes.

"Fen, have you received any news yet?" a granbull near the bonfire asked a foretress. I focused on their conversation.

"No, I haven't," the foretress, Fen, said.

"Then go back to your post," the granbull commanded. The foretress muttered a confirmation and floated off toward a steep rocky path.

I felt a paw tap my shoulder. I rotated my head toward Ray, who motioned back toward the vine-riddled entrance to the Mystery Dungeon. Nodding, I repeated the same signal with Eris, who gave me a similar response as I had to Ray.

We had hardly taken a step when an Energy Ball unexpectedly shot from the trees and hurtled into Ray's side. The air rushed out of his lungs, and he collapsed, gasping, to the ground.

Someone slammed onto my back, pinning me against the ground. I struggled vainly against my assailant's hold. In an effort to dislodge him or her, I charged a Swift to launch at the pokémon. However, a strong blow to the back of my head stunned me, and my Swift attack dissolved into twinkling lights. The pokémon on top of me began to wrap ropes around my legs while maintaining an unbreakable pressure on my back.

Eris faced two pokémon, one of them holding a coil of rope. Before they could get close, she threw a Seed Bomb at their feet, momentarily disabling their vision. In the brief flash, she speedily closed the gap and bashed the one not holding the rope on his or her head. As the one with the rope tried to strangle her, she swung her tail at him and whacked the assailant solidly in the gut, then the head.

When she spotted me tied up on the ground, she tried to rush toward me. However, while her back was turned, someone punched her strongly in the base of her skull. Her eyes rolled up in her head, and she tumbled limply to the ground, exposing a granbull right behind her. The granbull's left fist was coated in deep shadow.

"Well, well, look what we have here," the granbull, a male by the sound of his voice, said. He glanced toward Ray, who was being bound in rope by the same pokémon who had trumped me: a zangoose.

My head thrummed painfully as the granbull stared down at me. His face broke into a grin, and he said, "Bring them to the fire."

The zangoose hoisted Ray on his shoulders and grabbed me by my scruff, and he dragged us into the camp.

* * *

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	14. Chapter 13: More Than Meets the Eye

**\- Chapter 13: More Than Meets the Eye -**

"Toss them down right here," the granbull ordered, pointing near the bonfire. A crowd had gathered around it, their sunken faces accentuated by the firelight. A shiver ran down my spine at their intent stares and quiet murmurs.

"Why don't we just toss them right in, Yurk? This little piece of crap is a pain," the zangoose said, shaking Ray to emphasize his point. Ray, who had the breath knocked out of him, wheezed in protest.

"Just do it," the granbull, apparently called Yurk, said, his voice dipping into a deep baritone. Without further hesitation, the zangoose dropped us next to the fire. Its heat seared my right cheek, but because my legs were tightly bound, I could not shift myself away from it. More painful than the heat was my headache with its unrelenting throbbing. The rude slamming to the ground did not help matters in the slightest.

Eris landed right next to me, her face peaceful in sleep. Irritation flashed through me at how lucky she was. Here I was, in the middle of some hostile group of people, and she just got to _sleep_ through it.

 _I should be more concerned about me and Ray_ , I thought, trying to push past my petty mindset. My headache was making me more irritable than I thought possible.

Yurk positioned himself right next to Ray, who growled at him. In response, Yurk buried his foot into Ray's side, pressing down slowly. Ray's growl morphed into gasps for air. My heart pounded as Ray's breaths grew weaker and weaker; then, Yurk removed his foot with a satisfied snort. Ray did not growl at him again. Yurk eye's fell to my bag, and a hungry gleam shone within them. "Search her bag. See what she has."

The zangoose eagerly ripped my bag off of me and dug his claws into its contents. He pulled out all of our provisions, newly acquired items from the dungeon, and our job request. Upon taking the request, he unrolled it. His eyebrows raised as he read the document.

"Hey, Yurk, this is one of those fake job requests that we sent to one of those explorer's guilds. It has Trevor's name," the zangoose commented, proffering the paper to the granbull.

Yurk snatched the paper and examined it. Nodding his head once, he said, "Would you look at that. It's the one we sent to that Ironfist Guild." He raised his head from the paper and examined me, Ray, and Eris critically. "Didn't know they started accepting children."

In instinctual defiance, Ray growled at the granbull. Yurk only laughed at Ray's efforts.

"Haha, look at him, trying to get at me," he chortled. Suddenly growing serious, he leaned close to Ray and said, "Listen, you rascal. You're outmatched here, so I suggest that you do yourself a favor and quit trying to resist."

"Does it look like I care?" Ray spat. "If I had to take on all of you, I would do it."

Yurk chortled again. Turning toward a ledian behind him, he instructed, "Tie them to the stakes. They'll make a nice ransom; everybody pays for kids."

The ledian moved to hoist me; the zangoose did similarly with Ray. Two others handled Eris. As my captor moved to the stakes and the noibat, a tangrowth near the food table asked, "Are y'all sure we should be doing this?"

"What do you mean, Trevor?" Yurk questioned darkly. The ledian stopped moving, letting me dangle in his grip. I did not resist him; what good would it do me in this scenario?

Trevor shrugged his arms. "We're messing with one of the top expl'ration guilds 'round here. They'd most likely beat us up, hands down."

"That's why we're not going to ask for a ridiculous amount," Yurk countered. "I'm not daft. I know what we're going up against. If I didn't, I wouldn't have used this plan in the first place."

"I'm not arguing against the money. Times are too tough not to. I'm just sayin' is all," Trevor said.

"We're ransoming them. Quit being a feebas. Hank, get them tied," Yurk said with a tone of finality. I noticed that his hands had curled into fists. In reponse, the ledian, Hank, shifted his grip on me. The sudden movement jarred my brain, causing me to grunt in pain.

"Jeez, you're heavy," he commented.

 _And you smell,_ I mentally retorted.

While he swung me around into his grip, my eyes connected with Yurk's from across the bonfire. The spike in my head drove down further, and my stomach coiled into knots. I suddenly felt the sense to run as far away from him as possible.

"Hank, wait," Yurk called.

Hank halted, jostling me, and said, "Yeah?"

"Bring her to me."

His cold voice blanketed me like freezing air. Something about him disturbed me on a deep level that I could not comprehend. The more I attempted to shake the feeling, the more it festered within me.

Hank seemed to hesitate in confusion. His grip on me oddly tightened before quickly relaxing. He lifted me slightly before carefully striding to Yurk.

"What's the matter?" Hank asked.

"I just need to see her for a second," he responded, bending down to my eye level. In instinctual defense, I unsheathed my claws and thrusted them at him. Simultaneously, I wiggled as far away from him as I possibly could.

"Stay away from me," I hissed. Ignoring me, he leaned closer, silent as stone. His breath, hot and malodorous, nearly made me gag. My heart thumped wildly in my chest, following the rhythm of my accelerated breathing. I felt that my brain was being squeezed into a tiny ball.

His gaze probed me like a hungry predator sizing up its prey; then, he slowly stood upright. I sighed in relief as the pain in my head lessened.

"She's one of them," Yurk whispered. A chilling tension settled over the assembled pokémon. They exchanged shocked expressions with each other, and several muttered under their breaths to their neighbors. Alarmingly, a sense of _glee_ arose in the atmosphere.

 _One of them? Why? Who's them?_ I thought fearfully.

"He will be very pleased to know that we have found one," Yurk continued. "Make sure _her_ bonds are especially tight, Hank. We don't want her trying to escape like the last one."

"Sure," Hank said quietly. Gripping me tightly, he strode toward the stakes. The other thieves had already bound Eris and Ray and had left a coil of rope near another stake, presumably for me. Ray gazed at me questioningly, motioning to Yurk with his head. I shook my own head, not wanting to tell him what Yurk said.

Setting me on the ground, Hank untied my legs and discarded the rope. With the new, longer rope, he looped it around my midsection and the stake several times. He tied the coil off behind me, where I could not reach it with my claws.

"I really wish I didn't have to do this, but there's not much of a choice," he said with an air of resignation.

"Why are you doing this? We've done nothing wrong to you!" I demanded.

Hank ignored me, cinching my ropes with an unnecessary tug. His eyes purposefully avoiding mine, he rose and strode over to the fire, sitting next to the zangoose.

Sighing profusely, Ray slumped against his stake and muttered, "Well, this is fan-freaking-tastic."

I curled my paws tightly, vigorously thinking of a way to escape. Unfortunately, I could not think of a single way out of our predicament. I had little chance of freeing myself without someone noticing me. If I managed to free myself undetected, the space around me offered no immediate cover. I would be noticed as soon as I movedl the sentries that were posted in the trees near the Mystery Dungeon's entrance would assuredly be watching my every move. We did not even have a chance of someone coming to rescue us. No one knew where we had gone, and nobody ever would.

We were isolated and helpless.

I closed my eyes in resignation. How many times had I ended up in this type of a scenario in the past month? Twice? Four times? I could not even bother to count, especially with my debilitating headache. Something inside of me whispered that this probably would not be the last.

"We've got to get out of here," I whispered to myself.

Ray, overhearing me, jabbed, "No dip! Any additional bright ideas?"

"I'm thinking, Ray. It's just a little hard to strategize when Eris is unconscious," I said, motioning with my eyes to the breloom, whose head dangled over her left shoulder.

"Here's an idea: let's snap Eris into her rage mode or whatever the heck she does and get her to free us. She's at least more capable that way," Ray said hotly.

I narrowed my eyes. "You don't mean that."

"Try me."

"Geez, you two geezers, could you be any louder? At least keep your voices down if you're going to talk about escape already."

Ray and I simultaneously shifted our attention to the noibat. One of her eyebrows was raised at us; I could glean an impression of silent laughter from her. A scar wound its way down the outside edge of her left ear, pale against her dark purple fur.

An awkward silence stretched between us as we observed each other. I could tell that she not been here for long, judging by how uncomfortable she seemed in her bonds.

"Who're you?" Ray asked.

"Tasha. At least, I hope I am," the noibat replied, her grin stretching into a cheeky smile. "And you are…?"

"I'm Mona," I offered, "and he's Ray."

"Well, Mona, I would normally say something like, 'Nice to meet you,' but in this kind of a situation, it'd be more like, 'Sorry to meet you,'" she quipped with a slow wink.

I huffed lightheartedly. After a pause, I added, "Who are these people?"

"Thieves," Tasha responded immediately. "They've been stealing from 'round here for a while now. They actually do it pretty well if I do say so myself. Not that I'm appreciating them or anything."

I blinked at her and her effusive speech. Still, it beat arguing with Ray for the time being. "So, um, if you don't mind me asking, how'd you end up here?"

Tasha straightened her head, her expression hardening. "That's a long story."

Indicating with my head toward our bonds, I said, "We do have the time."

She raised her eyebrows thoughtfully. "True dat," she agreed. "If you really want to know, then I guess it won't hurt to tell you.

"About a couple of weeks ago—I'm not sure how long—I heard word that a wanted pokémon was lurking around in this forest. I figured that it was an easy way to pick up some cash, so I hunted for a couple of leads. Once I located the pokémon, I planned to sneak up on him and take him down.

"It turns out that this 'wanted pokémon' was actually a group of thieves, and this nearby town was offering a very nice price for them. I eventually found their hideout, this ravine, and made a foolproof plan to take them out. It was all in a day's work to me.

"I made my move during the night, when I was sure that they would be asleep. As I was flying into the ravine to set up my traps, one of those scums—that granbull they call Yurk—literally jumped twenty feet into the air and landed on my hidden little ledge. I was knocked out before I could cry uncle. Next thing I knew, I was right bound up in this rope. I still haven't figured out how he heard me when I flew without a sound and made absolutely sure that I wasn't seen beforehand. I've been here for three days now," she finished.

"Oh, Tasha, I'm so sorry," I said with a hint of forced pity.

"Sure, it sucks, but I've been in worse before. Nobody said being a bounty hunter was easy," she said indifferently.

 _Oh, she's a bounty hunter. Now it all makes sense,_ I thought.

"Seems the same happened to you," she stated with a nod to my bindings.

"Well, it was kind of the same. We got a fake job request. We're explorers," I said, proffering her my badge by puffing out my chest. She examined the badge curiously.

"I've never had the chance to see one of these up close," she stated. "Aren't the gems color-coded according to rank?"

"Uh-huh," I replied.

"So, what's yours?" she asked harmlessly.

"Normal Rank," I said after a split-second hesitation.

"Isn't that the lowest?"

"Um, yes, it is," I said slowly, suddenly uncomfortable with the direction that the conversation was taking.

"Oh," she said, thankfully without a condescending tone. "You're new to exploring, then?"

"Not entirely. I received training while I was in school. Although, to be honest, it's not that much like the real thing," I explained.

"Learning's really worthless, ain't it? Bounty hunting wasn't like how I thought it was at first. It took some getting used to." Here she paused, her eyes growing distant and withdrawn. I squirmed in my bonds, unsure of how to continue.

Then, Tasha abruptly shook her head and plastered a smile on her face. "Sorry, I got lost in thought for a second," she apologized sheepishly. "Where were we?"

"We should be talking about how to get out of here," Ray interjected, his tone of voice much calmer. He wiggled around until he could spy at us out of his right eye.

"Yeah, true, true," Tasha babbled. "You know, since the two, er, three of you of are here, I guess this makes my idea a lot easier."

I cocked my head at the noibat. "Idea? What do you have in mind?"

She detailed her plan, which boiled down to a relatively simple concept. The thieves apparently all gathered together during dinner, which meant that no sentries were watching them directly. At that point, Tasha could use her Supersonic attack to disorient them. However, it would be a short period of time since the move would be weakened as to not confuse us when it bounced back off the walls. Then, I would use my Swift (which she had somehow already known I could use), break our bonds with them, and flee during the turmoil up a hidden tunnel behind us. Nobody would be between us and the tunnel, and we would get away scotch-free.

When I glanced behind me, I spotted a narrow opening into the rock face, which was overshadowed by a pile of boulders. Eris would have a bit of hard time squeezing into it, but the tunnel was a viable escape option. It sure as heck beat going through the Mystery Dungeon again.

"So that means we'll have to wait a whole day," Ray said.

"Yeah, we will. What, you on a schedule or something?" Tasha asked.

"More or less. Anyway, we should just break out when they fall asleep. Much more effective," Ray said, countering Tasha's plan.

Tasha shook her head like a parent does to an ignorant child. "Tried that already on the first day I got here. Dang sentries caught me faster than an ekans does a rattata. Wouldn't exactly be good form for them to let free a prisoner who knows what they're doing, huh?"

"You already said they're thieves. It's not really breaking news about what they do," Ray said with a roll of his eyes.

"Oh no, not just that. They're taking people and sending them off with this weird person," Tasha said smartly.

"What do you mean?" I asked.

Tasha obnoxiously sucked in a deep breath. "Okay, so, there's this weird, creepy pokémon that showed up two days ago—when I was first here—and took this other guy that had been here before me. Yurk was saying something about this guy being 'marked' or some crap like that. Anyway, the stranger showed up and took the poor sap out of here. I felt really bad for the dude, especially because I heard a scream in the forest not too long after they left. That stranger has got to the be the most wack guy I've seen, what with the long, black cloak he wears and his weird, deep voice. The guy almost speaks bass."

My heartbeat had accelerated throughout her entire explanation until it thumped like a hammer against my chest. Ray and I exchanged a glance, both immediately figuring out who had taken the pokémon: Shroud. Then, a more worrisome thought crossed my mind.

 _Yurk said that I'm "one of them." Oh my Arceus. I'm on his hit list_ , I thought with dread. _Is he after me because Mr. Ace stopped him from killing me that day? Then how the heck did Yurk know?!_

My mind suddenly stilled. _If Shroud came here, then maybe… Maybe I could…_

I shook my head. _No! I'll get killed if I do that. I just have to get out of here for now._

"Mona, you good?" Ray asked. I blinked, realizing I had shaken my head without even saying anything. Instead of attempting to pass it off as nothing, I let my mouth curl into a grimace.

"Shroud has to be the one who came here. That means that I'm on his hit list," I uttered solemnly.

"True," Ray said. Then, he added, "That sucks."

"How considerate."

"Hold on, you mean _the_ Shroud, as in the famous criminal that everyone's trying to hunt down?" Tasha asked, a hungry gleam in her eye.

"Yeah. He's evil—just evil," I said, my voice diminishing into a depressed tone.

"I have to agree with the riolu. Sucks for you," she said. I frowned at her, and she shrugged back at me.

 _Why does everyone seem to reserve their pity from me?_ I thought.

At that moment, a groan sounded from my left. Eris slowly opened her eyes, trying to shift out of her uncomfortable sleeping position. Her body met with resistance from the ropes, and with panic, she realized where she was: not in the dungeon.

"W-What's going on? Where am I?" she cried, struggling in her bindings.

"Eris, calm down!" I said sternly. The breloom realized that I was next to her, and she stopped pulling against the rope.

"Mona, what's going on?" she asked me, a pained frown creasing her chin. Checking around me to make sure that we had lost the attention of the thieves, I explained to Eris all that had occurred, including our plan. With the apprehension she tacitly expressed, she clearly felt reluctance to proceed with Tasha's plan. However, I convinced her that we should listen to the person who had been here long enough to observe the camp and decide on the best course of action.

With the night still young, we fell asleep as best as we could.

* * *

Day felt more like night. The sun only cast its rays into the ravine for a meager two hours. Under its solidary strength, the air rapidly heated, forcing the ravine's inhabitants to seek respite inside of their caves. Ray, Eris, Tasha, and I baked in the sunlight with no relief at all, save for when the sun finally disappeared behind the trees far above us.

Several hours passed without incident. Tints of indigo soon streaked through the once-sparkling-blue sky, heralding the arrival of night. Two fires had been lit in ash-filled pits, and a couple of cooks were preparing some stew in pots sitting over the flames.

From hidden vantage points in the ravine, sentries clambered down the rocks. When their number crested five, I fully understood why Tasha planned her escape during dinnertime. We would have been blasted to smithereens before we could have made it halfway.

Every so often, a pokémon strolled out from behind the boulder pile at the ravine's end. Many held small morsels of Berries or dead game stuffed inside of sacks. Some placed their hauls on the lone table, while others stashed them inside of the largest cave, presumably a storage area.

When an ampharos bearing a worn basket traipsed out of the ravine, Tasha caught my attention with a whisper of my name.

"Yeah?" I breathed in response.

"That ampharos is the last one," she said. "Everyone who left this morning has come back."

"That means they're close to serving out dinner," I concluded.

Tasha nodded in confirmation. "Yep. Other than the fact that they're preparing the food, of couse. Personally, I find it weird that they like to all eat together like one big, giant family, but, hey, that just makes it easier for us."

Out of the corner of my eye, I spotted Ray staring at me. When I turned my head to return the look, he swiftly snapped his head away from me. Frowning, I observed him for a moment longer before similarly glancing away from him.

 _Sometimes_ , I thought.

The sound of a wooden ladle rapping against a pot rang in the air.

"Dinner's done, everyone!" one of the cooks, a sunflora, shouted in monotone, a characteristic rather unbecoming of a bright yellow flower pokémon. A chorus of shuffling feet and stamping hooves immediately followed as the pokémon in the camp rushed toward the stew. My stomach growled as I watched the stew being meticulously distributed, even though it bore a putrid color. Having only eaten a single rawst berry and drunk a small cup of water, my body was voraciously demanding for the food a mere twenty feet away from it.

 _Focus, Mona, focus,_ I said to myself, pushing my hunger to the back of my mind.

"Tasha, are you ready?" I asked the noibat.

"Yep. We just need to wait a little longer," she responded. Her entire physique appeared alert, and she was straining all of her body against the rope binding her.

"This is a _really_ bad idea," Ray whispered indignantly.

"Do you have any other ideas?" I shot back.

"Yeah, I do: don't do this," he said cynically.

"Ray, we can't wait any longer. _He_ could show up at any moment," I said. Fear broiled in my heart at the mention of Shroud's arrival.

"You know, I don't get why you're so afraid of him. He didn't torture you like he did Kyle and Zane. He only tried to kill you for a few seconds, and you're acting like he's the bane of your existence," Ray said. He unwaveringly glared at me, his face scrunched in irritation.

I hesitated in my reply. "Ray, just…," I said tightly, disengaging eye contact with him.

"Just what?" he practically growled.

"…We need to get out of here," I said resolutely.

"No, Mona, you're—"

"Is there a problem over here?" a voice drawled. The pinsir that Eris had punched when we were being captured sauntered over to us. He stepped close to me and Ray and clacked the pincers on his head together in a silent threat.

Ray and I both snapped our mouths shut.

"Good. Now keep it that way," he said. Turning his back to us, he hobbled over to a group of bug-type pokémon and sat in their circle.

"You guys need to keep it quiet!" Tasha hissed. "You almost blew our chance! Now, we'll have to wait even longer in order for them to forget about us again."

Ray grunted and rolled his eyes. I shook my head at him and mouthed an apology to Tasha. Miffed, she retrained her gaze on the thieves but occasionally peered at us out of the corner of her eye.

Silence stretched between the four of us as Tasha vigilantly studied the thieves. Over time, the stew in the pots diminished as the cooks doled it out to the waiting pokémon. After several minutes of tense suspense, when all had received their meals and were contentedly gorging on them, Tasha signaled us with a flick of her ears. Ray, Eris, and I signaled her back in turn; I pinned my ears against my head in preparation.

"We are so going to regret this," Ray muttered so softly that I almost did not hear it.

As soon as he finished, a whining screeched wailed from Tasha's ears. The horrendous noise assailed my eardrums with a fierce intensity. Crying out in shock, I fought against the urge to hurl the miniscule, half-digested meal in my stomach.

Tasha's Supersonic blasted through the assembled thieves. Bowls tumbled from dazed hands, their contents splattering over the rocky ground. The ones closest to us crumbled to the ground and vainly covered their ears. Pokémon stumbled in their efforts to regain their balance. Not a single person around us escaped the ferocious attack.

"Mona! Get us out!" Tasha screamed over the raucous noises of the confused pokémon.

Swallowing back bile, I attempted to conjure a Swift star near Tasha. A ball of light appeared above the rope around Tasha, but it fizzed out of existence as another wave of nausea coursed through me.

"Get it together, Mona!" Ray yelled. "We don't have all day!"

"I'm trying!" I said defensively. Affixing my gaze on Tasha's rope, I summoned another Swift star above it. This one retained its form, and I willed it to spin rapidly and slice through the rope. The star heeded my thoughts and easily slashed through the rope. Caught off-guard by the sudden lack of rope holding her to the stake, Tasha fell forward onto the ground with an exclamation of surprise.

Rapidly, I moved the Swift star over to Eris and Ray and freed them both. Eris sighed in relief as her bindings collapsed in a heap, and Ray flung his rope boldly off of him. Bringing the star to me, I cut my rope clean down the middle and shrugged off the loose segments.

"Okay, let's— _gulp_ —get out of here," I said.

Without further hesitation, the four of us sprinted, albeit with a slight wobble, toward the hidden passageway. Tasha soared ahead of us, her wings flapping rapidly.

A hoarse voice shouted incomprehensibly from my left. My head automatically swiveled toward the source of the noise, and I reeled in astonishment as Yurk charged through the crowd and toward us.

 _What the heck?! No! I thought Tasha said that they were all eating!_ I mentally exclaimed in distress.

"What is the meaning of this?" Yurk said angrily. His gaze immediately shot to Tasha, who had nearly reached the passageway behind the rocks. Her wings flapped tiredly as if they were lifting a great burden between them, the obvious result of days of motionless imprisonment.

The moment he saw her, Yurk growled so powerfully that I felt my chest vibrate. His malevolent glare sent a violent shiver down my spine. Frantically, I pushed myself faster toward the boulder pile. My heart beat rapidly in my chest, fueled by adrenaline.

For a split second, I thought that we would escape. Tasha was descending toward the passageway's entrance, and the three of us were mere feet behind her. Nobody could stop us; we were too far away for any of the thieves from the cave to reach us in time. We would be free.

All we needed was a few more seconds.

In that very instant, Yurk soared from overhead and landed right in front of Tasha. Snarling fiercely, he grabbed Tasha by her throat and ripped her right of the air. Without any restraint, he flung her into the ground. She wheezed and clutched at her sides as her body curled into a ball.

Terrified at Yurk's display of ruthlessness, I hastily scrambled to a stop, my eyes scanning for a way around the granbull. Yurk huffed disdainfully at the incapacitated Tasha; as he stepped over her, he noticed me staring edgily at him. His eyes, full of malice, bored into my own.

"You fools! How dare you try to escape?" he cried. He stomped toward us, his fists poised to strike. A dark haze formed around his clenched hands. Ray attempted to dodge around him, but Yurk swung his right fist at impossible speeds into Ray's back. The overwhelming force behind the blow drove the riolu forward several feet and into the rocky wall. Dazed, he slumped limply to the ground.

Yurk advanced on Ray, and his fists uncurled. The shadows dripping off his hands condensed around his fingers, forming long, deadly claws. I gasped, images of Lucy's death flashing before my eyes. Those were the same claws that had killed her. Those same claws were about to kill Ray.

My emotions reached a fever pitch. Crying valiantly, I bolted to Ray using Quick Attack and settled into a defensive stance before him. I instinctively bristled my tail and neck fur to increase my intimidation.

"Stay _back_!" I roared. A cold feeling flowed through my jaws as I screamed; when I stopped, I noticed that a wisp of shadows was curling out of the corner of my mouth. Fear broiled within me as that dark trail drifted to the ground.

Yurk regarded me coldly, then smiled toothily. "How amusing **,"** he taunted. He leisurely strode closer to me and Ray. Sliding back, I conjured a host of Swift stars, more than I had ever summoned before. They swam through the air like a rolling ocean, partially walling Yurk from us.

Bemused, he glanced at the shining stars around him with little concern. "What a pitiful threat. You should be ashamed," he said mockingly. Suddenly, he widened his jaw and roared at me. Waves of raw power flew from his mouth, crushing me under their forceful pressure. My paws strained to hold their ground, but they eventually lost their grip. I tumbled backward and crashed into Ray, and my Swift dissipated harmlessly into the air.

Coughing, I crawled away from Ray and weakly pushed myself to my paws. Footsteps quaked the ground, drawing close to me, and a hand snatched my scruff and hauled me into the air.

 _"This_ is an attack," Yurk bragged, thrusting me back into the ground. He pressed down on my chest and gradually squeezed the air out of my lungs. Shadows congealed around his hand and stabbed into my ribs. I futilely sucked in air, but my lungs could not expand enough to allow sufficient air to enter. As my desperation increased, Yurk began to cackle and compress my body even further. The corners of my vision darkened, and my grasp on consciousness loosened.

"Yurk! Stop! That's enough!" a voice demanded.

Instead, Yurk lowered himself closer to me. Eyes as dark as the night sky ravenously drank me in like a starving predator. The fingers on his other hand extended over my chest and dug their nails into my sides. My weak resistance steadily died as my air-deprived body became comatose.

"YURK! You're killing her!" the voice shouted, sounding distant.

At those words, Yurk blinked and lurched back from me. His hands detached from my chest, and I gasped when precious air entered my lungs. As I recovered from being asphyxiated, Yurk glanced between me and his hands, his midnight eyes now ringed in white. His breaths were heavy, laden with an emotion that I could not understand.

Right next to him stood Trevor, the vines on his body writhing in agitation. Other thieves, having recovered from being confused, had gathered around us. Yurk observed them all, a scowl forming on his face.

Trevor opened his mouth and said, "Yurk, what the he—"

Clenching his fists, Yurk brushed past Trevor, cutting him off mid-sentence, and said to the thieves, "Tie them up."

No one moved. When Yurk saw that they were doing nothing, he repeated in a deeper voice, "Tie them up!"

As soon as the command escaped his lips, Yurk's body locked together. His eyes glazed, and his hands dropped to his sides.

"Yurk? Are you okay, man?" Hank asked, his black-spotted elytra fluttering. The others appeared similarly anxious at Yurk's sudden behavioral flip.

Yurk remained obliviously frozen in place. After a moment of silence, his mouth curled upward in a devious grin.

"He is coming," Yurk said. A dark cackle escaped his lips. Crazed eyes gazed at each of the thieves in turn before settling on me.

"He will be here tomorrow at midday, when the sun reaches its zenith," he elaborated. "We must be ready. We must be ready…"

Muttering to himself, Yurk ambled past the thieves and into a cave with claw marks along its entrance. When the shadows had swallowed him, Hank twirled the rope around his sticky hands and plod guardedly to me.

"I'm going to have to tie you up now," Hank spoke with an edge of caution.

Indignantly, I raised my haunches and charged a Shadow Ball in front of my mouth. Hank stopped approaching when I mustered the attack.

"Don't come any closer," I spat around the glowing purple orb.

Stretching the rope taut, Hank said, "Listen, kiddo, it's one of you versus all of us. You might hit me, sure, but you'll get hit a lot more."

I shuffled uncertainly in place, considering the implications of his words.

 _He's right. I'm just going to get injured if I pick a fight right now,_ I thought. Stealing a look over my shoulder, I observed that Eris trembled in fright, her tail wedged firmly between her hands. She hardly seemed to notice me watching her, preferring to stare abstractly at her feet. Ray, meanwhile, had just pulled himself to his feet, but his expression indicated that he was in no condition to fight. Tasha still lay prone on the ground, wheezing.

 _They'll get hurt if I fight here,_ I realized.

Sighing, I returned my gaze to Hank. I dissolved my Shadow Ball and shifted out of my aggressive stance. Hank visibly relaxed as I lowered my guard.

"Good choice. I honestly didn't want this to turn out badly, either," he breathed in relief. Motioning with his four empty arms to the stakes, he continued, "Just walk back over there. No need to go fast; just take it slow."

Scrutinizing Hank out of the corner of my eye, I tread warily to the stakes. While Eris could similarly walk to one of the stakes, Tasha and Ray had to be carried due to them being severely weakened from Yurk's devastating blows.

While Hank hovered over me, I spied Ray out of the corner of my eye. To my surprise, he was returning the gesture, his expression inexplicable. I fully swiveled my head toward him, but he turned away before I finished.

Once we had all been securely bound to those dreadful wooden posts, Hank asked a girafarig to stand watch over us. The girafarig clearly had reservations about becoming a sentry because he attempted to negotiate the subject with Hank. After a short debate, the girafarig conceded, and she settled on a spot near us.

 _This is bad,_ I thought. _We have a someone watching us now._

"Well. Isn't this fantastic," Ray snapped. Apparently, his mood from moments ago had either lifted or been suppressed. He twisted his paws against the rope and sighed when they unsuccessfully loosened its knot. Irately, he turned toward Tasha.

"This is your fault," he hissed at the noibat. "If you hadn't just assumed that everyone would be outside, then we wouldn't have gotten caught."

"Excuse me?" Tasha exclaimed.

"It's not her fault that Yurk and those other pokémon didn't go outside, Ray," I said.

"She was looking at them the entire time," he argued.

"And we were, too," I countered. "We could've at least seen that Yurk wasn't with them."

"Yurk _was_ out there. I don't know why he wasn't confused—or, rather, why he recovered so darn quickly," Tasha said. As we switched our attention to her, she continued, "We had our chance, and we blew it."

Ray snorted at her remark. "Tch. Why did we even trust…," he said, then fell into grumbling.

Despite my defense of Tasha, her words struck a chord in me. We had failed to break free. We had no back-up plan. We had our chance; now, we were stuck here.

 _No, there has to be another way. I won't let Shroud take me!_ I thought defiantly.

"Tasha, do you remember seeing any other way out of here?" I asked her.

She immediately shook her head in denial. "We can't do much of anything. Everyone's going to be on high alert. Plus, we have a sentry personally watching us now. There's not much of a chance of us getting out now."

Not one of us spoke as we absorbed Tasha's words. I grit my teeth as I searched my mind for another method we could use to break out of the camp.

 _I could knock out the girafarig with a Shadow Ball, but then I'd attract the others' attention. I could do it at night… No, the other sentries in the trees would see it. I'd have to knock them out to, but the noise that would make would wake up the others, and we'd still have to free ourselves_ and _get out of here without them catching us…_

While I had lost myself in thought, the thieves had finally recovered from their confusion, their bumbling calming to controlled swaying. A few of them noticed the mess about them and began to clean up the debris. The vast majority, however, quickly concluded that we were the source of the Supersonic, and they did not hesitate to turn their wrath upon us.

"What'ssss the big idea, huh?" a seviper hissed. "You think it'sss funny to watch ussss toddle around like drunkardsssss?"

"What's it you?" Ray spat.

The seviper glared daggers at Ray and reared his tail besides his head. "Maybe I sssshould return the favor," he said suggestively, lowering his tail over the defiant riolu.

"Don't even think about it, Tom," the girafarig said firmly, butting the seviper's tail away.

"Why? Whoever sssaid that we couldn't give them a few little deep cutssss?" Tom said. He inched closer to Ray dangling his tail close to Ray's face.

"Because these kids are our ticket to cash so we can get out of this pothole of a ravine," the girafarig answered dully. "If we ransom them with wounds all over them, we're going to have a lot less of an edge in negotiation."

Tom hesitated, glancing between Ray and the girafarig. After a few seconds, he slithered back from the riolu. "I ssssuppose you're right," he said, appearing to have calmed slightly.

"Personally, I'd love to give them a good Stomp in the face, but…," she said suggestively, shrugging her shoulders.

"Yeah, I get it," Tom said. His tongue snaked out of his mouth, tasting the air near us, before slithering back between his fangs. With no further interest in maiming us, he slunk away.

 _I've really messed up this time,_ I thought, my insides broiling with humiliation from all of the hateful stares that we were receiving. _Out of all the mistakes I've made in my life, this is the final one,_ I thought. _I…I'm going to die, aren't I?_

 _No. I refuse._

In this manner, my mind circled around itself, contradicting both sides of the argument and never settling on an answer. Dusk faded into night, and my body, exhausted from its lack of sleep from last night, slipped into a dozing state.

However, one thought lurked in the back of my mind. It terrified me so much that I hardly wanted to acknowledge it, yet the truth of it was undeniable.

I had secreted the same shadows out of my mouth that Yurk had out of his hands.

* * *

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	15. Chapter 14: Prisoners in an Open Cage

**\- Chapter 14: Prisoners in an Open Cage -**

 _Snick._

"Gah…!"

 _Thump._

"Ngh," I grunted as I stirred awake. _What was that?_

Drowsy, I examined the area behind me, where I had heard the disturbances. In the murky gloom, my unadjusted eyes could barely perceive my nose, much less anything beyond it. Squinting hard, I faintly discerned the silhouette of a quadruped. Initially, I assumed that it was merely the girafarig still watching us. However, when the pokémon drew closer, I discovered it to be an unfamiliar one.

"Who are you?" I sputtered, utterly aghast.

The pokémon was crouching low to the ground. Another dark figure, who I guessed was the girafarig, lay motionless on the ground. The pokémon reached out with a paw and pressed it on my lips, softly shushing me in a soprano voice. She quickly checked over her shoulder, then stealthily crawled to my backside. A gentle tug pulled at my legs as I heard the sound of claws slicing rope, and I felt the bindings fall away from me.

Confused, I stood and faced the pokémon, shaking out my weak legs. In the faint moonlight, I could distinguish my savior's species: a liepard.

"Why did you—" I started to ask, but she pushed her forepaw on my shoulder and hushed me again. Once she seemed satisfied with my silence, she crept over to Tasha and freed her as well. As the rope dropped to the ground, Tasha startled awake and blearily glanced around her. Surprisingly, she hardly reacted when she saw her liberator.

As the liepard released Eris and Ray, I tiptoed over to Tasha. She had already mustered the strength to stretch her wings and flutter to the top of her stake. I opened my mouth to speak to her when a loud scuffling and a bright orange glow interrupted me.

Ray had raised his arms in an offensive position, twin Force Palms charged in his paws. He was growling threateningly at the liepard, who made no move to respond. Instead, she stepped away from Ray, breaking eye contact with him, and prodded Eris, who not yet arisen from her slumber.

Miraculously, the liepard's gentle touch awakened Eris. The breloom twitched violently and rolled onto her side. As soon as she was coherent enough to notice that the liepard was hovering above her, she frantically scrabbled to her feet.

"Shhh," she hissed at Eris. Eris, however, still shuffled several feet from the liepard and clutched her tail defensively.

"Y-Y-You…Uh…You…," she sputtered, unable to form a coherent sentence.

"Stay quiet if you want to get out of here," the liepard whispered. Scanning the area around her again, she signaled with a forepaw to follow her. Then, she snuck toward one of the ravine walls.

"I'm not going anywhere until you tell us what you want," Ray said as he raised his Force Palms higher. His posture remained tense and wary.

"I'm freeing you. Don't be asinine. You have to trust me," the liepard whispered, tension creeping into her voice.

"And why should I?" Ray said. He took a step closer to the liepard. To make her point, she gestured with a forepaw to the ropes on the ground, then waved her hands along the walls. I followed her gaze and found that the five—no, six—sentries along the walls had all been incapacitated.

"How did you—?" Tasha breathed in awe.

"Sleep darts," the liepard responded. Indeed, a leather necklace, which I had not noticed before, dangled from her neck. Looped on it were a few tubes, presumably containing pre-packaged darts.

Ray's gaze shot from the cut ropes to the unconscious sentries. Slowly, he lowered his guard, and the glow in his hands faded. Satisfied, the liepard dared toward the ravine wall on my right, clinging to the shadows.

"This way. There's a wagon waiting for us at the top," N'aliq faintly called. Hurriedly, I jogged after her, but as soon as I reached her, pain pounded in the back of my skull. Nearly tripping over my own feet at my headache's unexpected return, I stumbled to a halt at the same moment an enraged roar echoed off the ravine's walls.

Frightened, I swiveled toward the source of the sound. In front of the caves stood Yurk, his hands and feet covered in a shadowy haze and his eyes colored pitch black.

"YOU!" he bellowed. Raising his fists above his head, he smashed them into the ground. A shadowy wave emitted from his fists and raced across the rock toward us.

"Look out!" the liepard shouted. She leapt between us and the attack, bracing her body. In the split second before the wave overtook us, a glowing, fluorescent green wall appeared in front of us. As the attack hit the barrier, the shadows explosively dispelled, leaving us unharmed. The wall faded along with the shadow wave, and N'aliq frantically urged us to continue toward the passageway.

"I'll _kill you_!" Yurk screamed. As soon as he pulled his hands out of the craters they had created in the ground, he charged after us with a roar.

Fortunately, we reached the tunnel before him. Instead of a being grand opening into the rock like I had envisioned it to be, the entrance was a mere hole not much taller than a foretress.

"In! In!" the liepard said. Tasha immediately swooped into the passageway, and I quickly ducked inside after her. Eris entered last, and when she did so, the liepard squared planted herself just inside the entrance. After commanding us to stand back, she knocked a stone out from under the boulder pile. The rocks suddenly shifted, the removal of the cornerstone destabilizing them. Moments before Yurk reached us, they tumbled apart and sealed off the tunnel's entrance with a resounding crash.

In the split second before the rocks covered the tunnel, my eyes strayed to the ravine beyond Yurk. Under the faint moonlight, I thought I spotted a cloaked figure standing alone in the center of the ravine, the end of his cloak fluttering. Then, the last of the stones settled, and silence reigned.

I released the anxious breath that I had been holding in relief. From somewhere near me, I heard Eris sniff heavily.

"Go, go," the liepard urged. "That won't hold him back forever."

True to her word, pounding shook the rock blockage. Yurk's roars, though dulled by the stone between us, increased in volume with each strike.

I needed no further urging. Hastily, I scrabbled upward in the darkness, pushing my weak legs as hard as they could. The others scrambled after me, tripping many times in the pitch-black tunnel. Thinking quickly, I launched a Swift star and dangled it in the air, and it provided enough light to distinguish the path forward.

We climbed for what felt like hours, but what only must have been fleeting minutes. After one bend to the right, silvery moonlight shone into my eyes from an opening above me. Joyous, I clambered up the final stretch of the rocky passage and emerged into the warm night air.

"Took you guys long enough!" someone said above me. Craning my neck upward, I noticed that Tasha was hanging upside down from a branch. Smiling cheekily, she flipped upward onto the branch and breathed in deeply.

"Man, the air smells so good up here," she said appreciatively.

As the last of us emerged from the tunnel, the liepard turned to her left and shouted, "Wa'vak, now!"

Another liepard leapt down from a tree. He rammed another boulder pile with his shoulder, sending them cascading down in front of the tunnel.

"That should buy us enough time to get out of here," the second liepard, Wa'vak, said, but he did not sound very hopeful. As if to prove his doubts correct, rough panting echoed from the tunnel, sounding distant yet close. Another second later, a roar emanated from the passageway.

"You know, I would normally jet at this point, but I'd rather _not_ get caught again," Tasha remarked, sailing down to Wa'vak. "Lead the way!"

"The wagon's right there," Wa'vak said. He indicated with his head a covered wagon concealed behind a low-hanging bough, and Tasha eagerly soared into the wagon. As Eris and Ray ran past me, Ray rather reservedly, I stalled, staring back at the passageway's entrance. The rocks quaked slightly with Yurk's thundering footsteps. Maybe if we were to knock them inward, they would cascade into the cave and bury Yurk permanently beneath them.

 _No, Mona. You're not a killer._

Turning my back to the cave, I fled from it without a backward glance. I skirted around trees and bushes until I had reunited with the others. They were clambering into the large wagon, a burly tauros attached by a yolk to its front.

When Wa'vak spotted me, he said, "Kid, get in the wagon!"

I hurriedly scampered over to the wagon and leapt unquestioningly into the back.

"Alright! Let's get a move on!" the female liepard called to the tauros out front. The tauros mooed in response, and the wagon began to roll forward. When we had gained sufficient momentum, the tauros settled into a trot, and we disappeared into the night.

* * *

"Hey, wake up. I've got some breakfast for you."

A paw gently prodded my shoulder. Stirring awake, I exhaled deeply and stretched my limbs. Cracking my eyes open, I beheld the female liepard, whose paw was settling back onto the ground. In her mouth dangled a burgeoning cloth wrap. When she dropped it, it unfurled and revealed a crumbly biscuit.

"Oh," I mumbled as she set them down near my paws. She smiled tightly in reply, then stepped around me and out of my field of vision.

Rolling onto my stomach, I licked the biscuit experimentally. A dry taste tickled my tongue. With resigned distaste, I bit a small mouthful and swallowed it. My hunger instantly rekindled, and I forsook my taste buds and ravenously devoured the rest of the biscuit. I finished the perceived delicacy so quickly that my tongue hit dry wood before my mind had registered that I had completely eaten it. Despondent, I pushed myself onto my haunches, and my head bumped against a box as I raised it.

"Ow," I hissed, scooting away from the offending box. My tail brushed against another object, and I stopped moving upon realizing that I was sitting in a cramped space between boxes and sacks. In front of me lay Eris, who was, astoundingly, awake. She smiled tiredly at me when I looked at her.

"Morning," she groaned.

"Morning," I parroted.

To my left, I heard the liepard whisper a morning greeting to Ray—I could tell by the disgruntled and aloof nature of the reply. The liepard dropped his breakfast and sank to the ground against the wall opposite of Ray.

Straining into a sitting position, I half-expected my head to throb at the increase in elevation. To my pleasant surprise, no such pain accompanied my movement. I sighed in relief at the absence of my two-day headache.

I glanced over to the liepard, and she, noticing my gaze, said, "Good morning."

"G'morning," I reply. "How are you?"

"Good enough. How are you?"

"Good, uh…what's your name, ma'am?" I ask.

"N'aliq," she said. "My name is N'aliq."

Now that I could focus better, I noted that her voice held a slight accent to it. She said her "a" like "ah," not "uh," and her "i" had a long, drawn out "ee" sound. Despite hearing only one sentence, I found it very beautiful.

N'aliq waved a paw toward the other liepard, who sat near the fore of the wagon. "He is my mate, Wa'vak," she introduced.

Wa'vak nodded his head to me and to Eris, who was observing him as well. Eris ducked lower to the floor, her hands pulling toward her stomach.

Realizing that I had not given them my name, I said, "My name's Mona. She's Eris. She's Tasha, and he's Ray. Thanks, uh, for saving us."

N'aliq smiled. "You're welcome."

Wa'vak started as if remembering something; then, he reached in front of him and hooked something with his claws. With a flick of the wrist, he tossed the object over to me. I smiled gleefully when I recognized it to be my treasure bag.

"Oh, uh, th-thank you," Eris said.

"Thanks! How did you know we had it?" I asked.

"Actually, how did you know that we were down in that place at all?" Ray interjected, sitting up high enough that I could properly see him over the boxes.

N'aliq inhaled deeply. "Someone from Rocky Springs, the nearby town, spotted you three about to enter the Mystery Dungeon. He tried to warn you, but one of you—," she said, pointedly eyeing Ray, "attacked before he could explain. You left by the time he came back. Rather than go into the dungeon, he came to us."

She turned to Tasha with an apologetic expression. "I'm sorry. If we had known you were there, we would have come sooner," N'aliq said.

"Eh, it's over now. Not like it was possible, anyway," Tasha said, brushing off N'aliq's apology. Appearing to be not quite sure what to make of that answer, N'aliq awkwardly nodded and said nothing.

In the ensuing silence, Eris coughed softly. We all turned to her, and she shrunk under the weight of our attentiveness. She managed to croak out, "So, uh, Y-Yurk…he…"

Wa'vak caught on to what she was trying to say. "Yurk is the leader of the thieves, yes. He used to be a farmer like me and my mate."

"Really? What happened?" I asked the male liepard.

"The forest sickness. It sprang up a few months ago, and it spread too quickly for us to eradicate. Many lost their farms, including Yurk. He became so embittered that he formed a band of degenerates from the other unfortunate farmers. They've been stealing since," he explained.

"Wow. Is forest sickness really that bad?" Tasha asked.

"It can be," I said. "It nearly happened with the northeastern part of the Oran Forest."

Tasha raised her eyebrows in surprise. "Huh. Never grew up near forests," she said.

"Some of the homesteads up north decided to help Rocky Springs deal with him, including us," N'aliq added. "We requested Army support from Hawthorne a while ago, but soldiers have yet to come. So much for a diligent capital."

 _They can't legally deal with them forcibly_ , I thought. _Using moves against other pokémon outside of self-defense and in Mystery Dungeons is against the law. Even though they know where Yurk's hideout is, they can't put a stop to him._

"Well, it was still pretty brave of you guys to come save us," I complimented. I heard Ray snort, but I ignored him.

"It's what needed to be done," Wa'vak said.

"Though we weren't able to save that one guy who disappeared several days ago. He was gone when we were looking for you," N'aliq lamented.

Tasha turned her head subtly toward me, and I met her gaze. We knew what had really happened to the pokémon; it would not be wise to mention his fate to the liepard. Quickly realizing that nobody was talking, I shifted my focus to the ground in front of me.

 _The last thing they need to be finding out about is that some super criminal is wandering around the continent_ , I thought.

Wa'vak called out, "Hey, Gurth, how far out are we from Rocky Springs?"

"We should get there about an hour or so before evening!" the tauros pulling the wagon responded between heavy breaths.

I thumped my tail against the floor. I could see the afternoon sun still burning high in the sky. We had a while yet before we reached the town. Eris's eyes drooped until they shut, and her breathing slowed. Tasha toyed with a protruding nail in the floorboards. Ray leaned his head in his hand, falling still.

The quiet of the wagon turned me once again toward introspection. All of our involvement in this issue had been a result, direct or indirect, of my desires. I found myself questioning the value behind our efforts. At first, I wanted to gather enough intel on Shroud that anyone more experienced could easily catch him and throw him in the most wretched prison for his entire life.

With Yurk, however, I felt that something more than mere criminal activity was occurring. Yurk had an almost slavish respect for Shroud; could Shroud be trying to amass a following? The thought left me with a sour taste in my mouth. Now, more than ever, I wanted to reach the Ruins of Eld, spy on that meeting, and find out what Mr. Ace was hiding.

 _Heavens so help me, if he's holding out on me…_ , I thought.

A part of me argued that we should not eavesdrop on the meeting. This was not truly my business with which to interfere. Should Mr. Ace spot us, our reputation in the guild could be ruined.

I ignored that part of me. It was surprisingly easy to do so.

* * *

True to Gurth's word, we arrived at Rocky Springs before sunset. The wagon tottered over the uneven ground as we pulled up next to a log fence. Stretching out my cramped back, I tiredly ambled to the back of the wagon and clambered out of it. The others followed after me.

The bright reflection of the sunlight off the pale dirt blinded me briefly. When it returned, a serene village filled my vision. Houses of wood logs dotted the landscape, some with chimneys belching smoke from hearth fires. Few trees shielded the area from the sun. A pond, its shores rippling with a gentle current, encompassed the center of the village. A river streaked out of the pond to the south, presumably to the Sheerdrop Falls that housed the Waterfall Cave Mystery Dungeon.

A herdier and lillipup frolicked near the lake. With a playful shriek, the lillipup darted away from the herdier.

"Lily, stop! Wait for me!" the herdier called as he chased after her. By the sound of his voice, I could tell that he knew he could catch up to her easily, but he appeared to be entertaining her childish fantasies.

"C'mon, Cujo! You're so _sloooow_ ," she groaned. The two passed by me, the herdier glancing at us light-heartedly. Seeing them brought a smile to my face, and a light chuckle escaped my throat.

This village felt more a like trading outpost than anything, but I felt a strong sense of community.

"You can board in the town house for the night," N'aliq said. She pointed to the far side of the pond, and my eyes fell on the only two-story house over there. A small dock extended from the land right behind the building.

"Th-Thanks, N'aliq and Wa'vak, uh, for e-everything," Eris said.

"Yeah. We would've been roasted like chestnuts on an open inferno if not for you guys," Tasha thanked. She was fluttering in the air, her wingbeats remarkably steady for one who had them bound in an awkward position for days.

 _I'm pretty sure it's supposed to be "chestnuts on an open fire,"_ I thought.

Tasha turned to me, Eris, and Ray with an inquisitive expression. "Hey, you don't mind if I hang out the night with you guys, right?" she asked.

I shrugged my shoulders. No reason to say no.

"Uh, yeah," Eris said.

Ray glanced back and forth between us. "That's between you two. I'm getting a different room."

For a moment, I pitied Ray. If I was a guy, I think I would feel uncomfortable sharing a room with three girls. Then again, he was comfortable sharing a room with me and Eris. Although, was that an assumption? He never told us what he felt.

Ugh. Guys.

Wa'vak escorted the four of us to the town house while N'aliq unloaded some of the cargo from the wagon. Thankfully, the town house contained three spare rooms for travelers. Eris, Tasha, and I chose one room, and Ray chose the one across from it.

Two beds filled the right side of our room. Two windows let in light on the opposite side of the beds. A cabinet sat between the two windows, its doors slightly ajar. A nightstand resided in between the two beds. Other that those pieces of furniture, no other ornaments adorned the room.

Tasha fluttered to the far window and tested it for a latch. Finding one on the left of the frame, she unlocked it and swung it wide open. She flew to the top of the window's frame and hung upside-down from it. She shuffled experimentally, then smiled in satisfaction.

"This is a good window," she said, crossing her wings and nodding approvingly. I raised my eyebrow at her in amusement while her head was turned away.

A knock sounded at the door. As I was the closest, I was the one who pushed it open. In the hallway stood Ray, his hands toying with his collar fur.

"Hey, Mona," he said quietly, "could you come with me for a minute?"

"Sure, Ray. What is it?" I asked, tossing my treasure bag on the floor. I waved apologetically to Eris and Tasha, silently saying that I would be back in a little bit.

"Just walk with me," he said.

"Uh, okay. Is it something important?"

He did not reply to my question. Instead, he strode toward the entrance of the building, prompting me to follow him. We exited and headed toward the forest on the fringes of town. As we delved into the woods, I failed to restrain my curiosity any longer.

"Okay, Ray, what did you want?" I blurted.

He halted, checking over his shoulders as if eavesdroppers waited behind the trees. Satisfied after his cursory glance, he returned his attention to me and said, "I wanted to, uh, talk to you about something."

"Alright," I said. I settled onto my haunches, peering up at Ray. He tilted his head slightly at me, but he made no motion to sit as well. His paw reached up and twirled his collar fur; apparently, he had assumed that I would say no.

Ray must have felt awkward to be standing while I was sitting, so he stepped back a few strides and slouched against a tree. Clearing his throat, he began, "Why did you offer me a position in your exploration team if we had only barely known each other?"

His question hit me like one of Kyle's kicks to the gut. My mouth cracked open as my mind mulled over his words. Why had I asked him? The blur of the past several days had made me forget my initial reasoning, and I struggled to recover it.

"Why after such little time?" I paraphrased back to him as I thought. "Well, I guess… Eris and I did want someone else on our team, after all. We didn't really know much of what we were doing, and then you came along. You, uh, saved us from those dewott without much of a second thought. Twice, even, and I felt that someone like you, with all of your skills and knowledge, should be on our team."

I sheepishly lowered my head. "I don't have much more reasoning than that. Sorry."

When I raised my head, Ray had locked his eyes on me in an intense stare. I met his steely gaze with an inquisitive one of my own. Subtly, Ray tilted his head a little toward me, and for an instant, I thought I saw an emotion pass through them. Before I could distinguish it, it was gone.

"Why did you ask me about that?" I inquired of him.

Ray sighed and crossed his arms. His head lifted toward the canopy above, where a pidgey sang a warbled tune.

"Even though I officially joined the team, I've been really unsure about the decision," he said. "Your offering of it to me felt like a golden opportunity, but I still had my doubts."

Here he ran a paw through the fur on the top of his head. He closed his eyes, pausing; then, he continued, "Down in that thieves' camp, I thought Yurk was going to kill me, but you tried to stop him and almost died in my place. I can understand that you really meant what you said about wanting me to be on the team."

My breath hitched in my throat. I felt a blush creep to my cheeks at his compliment. My forepaws crunched the dirt under them as a vent to my embarrassment.

"I'm sorry for how I've been acting to you and to Eris. I'm going to clean up my act; you guys are my teammates," he finished. Pushing himself off of the tree, he strode over to me and extended a paw.

I gazed at the paw. It hovered motionless in the air, its palm facing upward invitingly. With a smile, I reached out my own paw—the one that did not churn up the dirt—and placed it in his.

"I'm sorry for my behavior, too. I've done nothing with you but argue. I promise to shape up, too," I said.

We shook our paws. It was only one quick motion, but we knew the significance that we were placing behind it. My heart fluttered for joy in my chest.

As we released our grip, Ray's face momentarily stretched into a grin. It felt genuine—completely unforced. I returned his grin with an even brighter one of my own.

"You're going after Shroud because of your friend's death, right?" he asked bluntly.

My smile petered slightly. "Yes, I am."

"Then you better get him," he said. I could discern the intention under his words: he would support me. In the face of Eris's disapproval, his reassurance buoyed me immensely. I wondered what was making him so open all of a sudden.

 _Boom!_

Our heads simultaneously snapped toward the direction of the loud explosion. Above the trees, a cloud of smoke ballooned into the sky. Ray's grin had melted into a thin grimace.

"That came from the direction of town," he said, horror raising his tone of voices a few notes.

"Holy crap, we have to get over there!" I exclaimed.

We sprinted back whence we came, dodging around bushes and ducking under low-hanging branches. I silently thanked myself that I had left my treasure bag at the room in the town house.

Another several explosions had quaked the earth by the time we reached town. In the light of the setting sun, the whole town appeared as if on fire. Ash from burnt blades of grass covered vast portions of the ground. Smoke curled through the air like a nest of sevipers. One house's west side had partially collapsed, the rubble charred.

At the river mouth, an array of pokémon stood in defensive position. A few had cast up barriers like Reflect and Light Screen, and others were hurling ranged attacks downriver toward another group of pokémon. I spotted N'aliq and Wa'vak among the defenders, both using their bodies as Protect shields for those that were attacking.

The other group, while also using defensive maneuvers, was steadily advancing toward the townspeople. Among their ranks, I recognized a zangoose, ledian, and tangrowth. At the head of their group marched Yurk, his hands crawling with smoky shadows.

With a bellow, Yurk slammed his hands against the ground, sending a shadowy wave toward the town. While the Light Screens and Protects sheltered the pokémon, the town suffered a devastating blow, knocking the house missing some of its west wall completely to the ground. When the wave had traveled a certain distance, it exploded outward with a loud boom.

"Give them to us!" Yurk demanded in a volume much greater than should have been possible.

 _He means us_ , I thought in distress. Hastily glancing around, I realized that Eris was nowhere to be found. Neither was Tasha.

"Ray! We need to look for Eris!" I called to the riolu. I sensed that Tasha could handle herself in a crisis situation; Eris would crumble easily.

"Why? She's right there," he responded, pointing with a paw toward the townspeople. I wheeled toward them, then gasped when I beheld Eris between an ursaring and a chansey. Her hands whirled like the wind as they chucked Seed Bomb after Seed Bomb at the approaching thieves.

"Eris! What are you doing?!" I screamed, sprinting closer to her so she could hear me. She paused, Seed Bomb in hand, and turned around to face me. The hard square of her shoulders spoke of defiance, and her brow was heavily creased. Most of all, her eyes belied a level of solidarity unlike any I had seen before. She skimmed me over with a blank stare, then resumed lobbing Seed Bombs.

"Ray, it's happened again!" I said to the riolu.

"You mean that whole personality flip?"

"Yeah!"

Instead of panicking like I wanted, he shrugged his shoulders. "At least she's contributing," he said dryly.

"That's not—," I said, then shut my mouth. _He's not going to understand._

Another wave of shadows sailed toward us. A wall of Light Screens was hastily erected, but as the wave washed over them, a few cracks formed in its surface. The chansey next to Eris gasped as if personally wounded before falling onto her rotund backside.

Unexpectedly, Eris leapt into the gap that the chansey had created, launching her projectiles at an even faster rate.

 _Does she have a death wish?!_ I mentally cried.

"Mona! Get over here! We need everyone to repel them!" N'aliq cried as she deflected an energy ball away from the struggling chansey.

My eyes darted from the thieves to the damaged town. A horrible guilt clawed at my heart; we—I—had caused this. If I had not taken that stupid job, if I had just been more careful, none of this would have happened. I was responsible.

My teeth grit together in anger. Compelling my affinity energy into my legs, I sprinted to N'aliq in a blistering Quick Attack. I skidded to a halt between her and Wa'vak.

"I have never seen Yurk use attacks like these before," Wa'vak called to N'aliq.

"Me either. They feel…unnatural," N'aliq said.

A Shock Wave barreled across the field to us. Wa'vak threw up another Protect, but before it could solidify, it fizzed out with a sizzling sound. His eyes widened in shock.

N'aliq saved us both; she grabbed me by the scruff and tackled her mate behind the cover of a nearby Light Screen. Wa'vak and I muttered hasty thanks as we scrambled back to our feet.

Suddenly, a bestial roar echoed in the air.

"Listen, all of you! I will give you one last chance," Yurk uttered, stomping a foot onto the ground. He raised one hand into the air, clenching it tightly into a fist. "Give us the prisoners, and you shall be spared!"

* * *

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	16. Chapter 15: Choice and Consequence

**\- Chapter 15: Choice and Consequence -**

A calm fell over the field. The thieves halted in their attacks, yet the townspeople continued to maintain their defense. My heart chilled at Yurk's ultimatum: the safety of the town or the safety of a few travelers.

He had timed his demand well. Smoke filled the air, a product of the burned logs and grass dotting the town. A house had already partially fallen to the ground. If the fight continued, the town could be severely damaged. Who would risk their home over a few people with which they had no relation?

As if to punctuate my point, Ray muttered, "What the heck is his problem?"

N'aliq and Wa'vak glanced down toward us. Following suit, the eyes of the town steadily drew toward us pair by pair until all seemed to be examining us. Their weight crushed down on me, its condescension almost palpable. Dread filled me as I thought that they would had us over without another moment's consideration.

Who else could they say was the cause of this entire situation? Had we not been caught, they would have not felt the need to rescue us. Their town would not be threatened, and they would be safe. We were causing them all of this pain.

 _I_ was causing them all of this pain.

"Bring them forward," Yurk called, his patience nearly gone.

 _Maybe it would be better if we gave ourselves up_ , I thought. _We would save all of these other people._

My forepaw reached forward to break the line. Before it could, Wa'vak suddenly strode past me and out into the open.

"Here's my answer, Yurk: go drown in a lake for all I care. That's all the chance you'd get at taking these four!" he said.

I gazed up at him in awe. Why would he do this for us? Why would he stick his neck out like this?

"You really think you can stand up to me?" Yurk questioned. He paced to the side, waving his hand in the air. "My new powers give me the strength to take what me and my allies need. I thought to show you mercy, despite all that's happened, but I was mistaken."

He pivoted back around. "If only you could meet who gave me this power, you'd understand and side with me. We wouldn't have need for this."

 _Who gave him his power? Does he mean Shroud?_ I thought. _If that's true, then that means that those shadows that came from my mouth…_

A memory flashed in my mind's eye. Shroud was holding me high above the ground, readying to kill me. However, before he did, one of his claws touched my chest, and a black energy seeped from them into me. I had thought nothing much of it at the time, but that must have been when he put his power into me. Why would he do that, though, when he was about to kill me?

Someone else in the crowd cried out, "Just go off yourself, Yurk! Nobody cares about you or your gang anymore. Not after what you've done to us!"

Yurk bared his fangs fearsomely. Smoke billowed from his paws, sweeping up his arms. His head rolled once around his shoulders, slowly settling back into its normal position.

Brazenly, Yurk sprinted forward and called for his group to charge. Like a flood, they swarmed after him. Lightning, fire, and all manner of elemental attacks were hurled at us in reckless abandon.

I ducked behind Wa'vak as he raised a Protect against a Water Pulse. The energy-infused water splashed harmlessly beside him, its glow fading. Ray had positioned himself between N'aliq and Wa'vak. Judging by the way he crossed his arms, I could tell that he was annoyed with the entire situation.

 _Out of all the things to be, why…annoyed?_ I thought. _Shouldn't he be, you know, afraid for his life at all?_

The chansey whom Eris had covered had resituated herself among the defensive line and had raised a Light Screen. Eris herself hovered over the chansey's shoulder, eerily motionless amidst the barrage.

"Eris!" I cried, running to her. She should not be by herself. She needed someone at her back.

 _I can't have her getting seriously hurt._

At the sound of my voice, Eris's head turned toward me. I froze as blank, unresponsive eyes met with my own.

"Yes?" she said in a flat tone.

"…Eris?" I repeated her name again. _Can she really not recognize that it's me?_

"Focus on the fight, Mona," she said.

Relief filled me. She could tell that I was me. Maybe I was misconstruing the situation. Maybe things were not—

"Mona, they're here!"

Her warning came too late. A navy limb swung toward me from my periphery and nailed me in the side. My breath flying out of me, I fell onto the ground. Purple light consumed my vision, and a forked tongue licked the air near my face.

"Thissss will be ssssweet," a voice hissed.

That same voice emitted a choked sound, and the purple light vanished. A body fell to the ground next to me. Eris filled its vacancy, examining me carefully.

"You are not injured," she said after a moment. Grabbing my shoulder, she pulled me to my paws. "Rise and fight."

I had barely caught my breath before she darted off into the fray. Beside me lay an unconscious seviper, the one who had threatened retribution while I was still held captive.

Turning my back to him, I scanned the area. The fight had immediately shifted toward town, leaving downed pokémon in its wake. Ray nor the liepard couple resided among those motionless forms.

I felt tepid about rejoining the fight. Would I not just get in the way? I could not fight like Ray or Eris—at least, Eris at the moment. I would probably be captured in moment's notice.

 _"An explorer must have confidence, not deference."_

Mr. Ace's words rang in my head. My brow creased at the memory of him, but my heart resonated with the words' meaning. My path of life did not permit cowardice. I had to be strong, no matter how much my strength actually was.

 _Be strong._

I had never really told myself those words before.

I liked them.

"Ray!" I cried, jogging back toward the melee under the spell of my reinvigorated conviction. I ducked under a wildly thrown Energy Ball. "Can you hear me? Ray!"

"Mona! Here!" I heard from my left. Immediately following it was a massive blue fist. Reacting instinctively, I backpedaled, but the fist still glanced my shoulder. I stumbled back onto my haunches. A broad shadow fell over me, and I stared up into the face of a tangrowth. He was the one who had argued against Yurk. His aggression made him almost unrecognizable.

He reared his arm again. It elongated, and a green hue condensed around it. The whip-like arm slung toward me, the weight of the tangrowth's body following full-force behind it. Gasping, I barely managed to gather my body together and roll out of the way in time. The attack sliced the ground bare inches from my face.

His other arm bore down on me and pressed my body against the ground. As I struggled against him, he raised his whip-like arm again and swung it again. Mid-swing, however, he froze. The vines of his body vibrated against each other, partially untangling. He then sailed over my head, landing painfully on his back.

Ray had his paw raised where the tangrowth had been. His palm glowed faintly orange, which disappeared as he lowered his arm. His breath fell raggedly in and out of his mouth.

"You good?" he breathed.

"Yeah, yeah," I replied, pushing myself to my feet. "You?"

"Seen better days."

A dark shadow fell over us. Raising my head skyward, I beheld a girafarig leap off the top of the fallen tangrowth. While in mid-air, the girafarig's eyes flashed white, and the air wavered in front of Ray. He visibly recoiled as if struck with a fist, his paw rising to his head.

Impulsively, I began gathering ghost-type energy into my mouth. Then, realizing too late that the girafarig also possessed a normal typing, I ate a face-full of hoof. I staggered, stunned, my jaw throbbing from the point of impact. Barely recovering, I awkwardly side-stepped out of the girafarig's next Stomp attack.

I charged my affinity energy to the edge of my skin. Locking onto the girafarig, I released a Swift as the same instant he reared again. The stars punched his ribcage, and he fell onto the ground, stunned. Ray, who had been prowling behind the girafarig, sprung forward at the opening. His body flashed white, an energy trail tracing after him. He swung his leg powerfully at the girafarig's head, and it snapped toward his chest.

"Oh Arceus, Ray—!"

"I didn't kill him!"

Indeed, the girafarig's chest still rose and fell. He had only been knocked out.

"See?"

"I do, but still."

A Flamethrower seared the air right above me. Yelping, I dropped to the ground. When it ended, I glanced upward to spot who had unleashed it. Instead, I noticed a familiar purple shape soaring over the town, hotly pursued by several others.

"Ray, Tasha's in trouble!" I said over the cacophony of brawling pokémon.

"And why should we help her?" he shot back, taking shelter behind the fallen tangrowth.

I joined him. "Because she's outnumbered and about to be captured," I replied. As I gestured to her frantic flight, Ray sighed in resignation.

"How are we going to get over there?" he mused aloud.

"No time! Just run!" I said, sprinting out as I spoke.

"Mona! Just hold on—" he started to say, but his voice was drowned out as I plowed away from him. An unfezant gained rapidly on Tasha. As I watched, one of his wings ignited in a sky blue. With a mighty surge, he drew abreast of the noibat and slammed the wing into her backside. Over the raucous fight around me, I heard a faint scream.

Still flying, she attempted to swoop under the unfezant. She was met with an Air Cutter from a pidgeot. I heard another scream, this one louder. My heart rate accelerated as she began to free fall, her wings weakly flapping by her sides.

Energy rushed subconsciously into my legs. I ignored Ray behind me. I ignored the attacks flying around me, even as one glanced my cheek. My sole focus lay on the noibat plummeting to her death.

I burst toward Tasha, leaving a blazing white trail in my wake. Adrenaline pumped through me as I dove underneath a leavanny's Leaf Blade. My stride hardly broke as I leapt over friendly fire from a herdier, the same one I saw playing with the lillipup when I first arrived.

The top of a building lay in Tasha's trajectory. She was going to smash into it in seconds, her body splattering across the splintered wood.

 _I won't make it in time._

My legs struck the ground even more rapidly. I had now broken away from the main fight. The pokémon that had been pursuing Tasha were lazily spinning above her. One noticed me, however, and began diving at me.

 _I need to make it in time!_

The height from the eaves to the ground was more than ten times mine. Never before had I jumped that high. Banishing my judgment, I skidded to a halt, bunched my legs under me, and pushed into the air. I sailed upward, higher and higher, easily cresting the eaves. My claws dug into the wood as I landed on the roof. Engaging my Quick Attack again, I darted to the end of the roof.

 _I'm not going to make it!_ I thought. She had descended too far.

Miraculously, Tasha had come to life again. Her wings extended fully outward, breaking her fall ever so slightly.

It was all the time I needed.

Leaping upward, my teeth grabbed onto her wing. Instinctively, she cried out and wrapped herself around me. We tumbled together down the other side of the roof. In a last-ditch effort, I slammed my claws into the wood and dug them into it. Pain flared up my paws as my claws were nearly wrenched out. Nevertheless, I succeeded in halting our downward momentum.

Tasha dangled loosely from my mouth. With a groan, she situated her feet under her and tugged the wing in my mouth. I promptly released it.

A loud squawk sounded above us; then, a body thumped into the wood next to us. I turned my head to behold the pokémon that had dove after us—another unfezant—laying dazed on the roof. A second later, Ray landed by its side.

"Next time you decide to go rushing off, tell me," he huffed. The level of irritation in his voice, however, was muted. His exhaustion must be catching up to him.

A multitude of screeches descended from the skies above us. Ray quickly grabbed us and dragged us to the end of the roof. Gathering his legs under him, he jumped powerfully off of the roof, both of us in tow. I protested to his motion with a loud yell; Tasha said nothing, barely clinging on to consciousness.

Despite the danger of the maneuver, we landed safely. Ray dropped us onto the ground and immediately charged a Force Palm in his right hand. The aerial thieves were soaring down to us, and the pidgeot from before launching an Air Cutter at us.

"Move!" I shouted. Ray did not have to be told twice. As I sprinted back toward the river, where the fight was still centralized, Ray nabbed Tasha and carried her after me. The Air Cutter impacted not five seconds after we had left.

As more Air Cutters rained down upon us, I struggled to maintain my speed while dodging the attacks. My neck tightened from continually craning my head over my shoulder, and my legs felt sore after the intense sprint and jump that had performed to save Tasha.

My forepaws slipped on a patch of sand, and I tumbled to the ground. I scrambled to get back up, but an Air Cutter struck my ribcage and shoved me down again. Somebody shouted about a success—the unfezant, maybe—, and I felt a set of talons wrap around me.

"No! Let go of me!" I screamed. Ignoring my pounding ribs, I dug my claws into the earth. They snagged on a thick patch of grass, leaving the unfezant to beat his wings frantically to dislodge me.

"You let go!" he cried back me at me. My only response was to curl my paw more tightly.

"Let me make the decision for you!"

Thinking the voice was a hostile, I summoned a volley of Swift stars around me. Instead, I heard a loud hiss followed by the unfezant falling on top of me. Sand and grass filled my vision, and my limbs became entangled with the unfezant's wings. Even though he tried to fly away, every other second, his body recoiled into mine like someone was beating him—very terribly at that.

Eventually, his struggles weakened to the point of nonexistence. A yellow paw hauled the unfezant to the side.

"You good, Mona?" Wa'vak asked me. His breath came out in light pants as if he had just come back from a morning jog.

"I think I—watch out!" I cried. The liepard, quick to react, whirled about, but I had warned him too late. The oncoming Air Slash struck him in his chest, tossing him aside like he was a baby doll. He remained on the ground even when the pidgeot that had struck him touched down beside him.

"I never really did like him," the pidgeot commented, stepping disrespectfully over Wa'vak. His gaze homed in on me, and his wings raised off his body in preparation for offense.

I never gave him the chance. My body, encased in a cone of white light, rammed into his chest, right where he had hit Wa'vak. As the pidgeot sailed backward, he wrapped his wings around me, dragging me with him.

"Get _off_ of me," I growled into his feathers. We landed jarringly, but the pidgeot refused to release me. I beat my limbs against his wings, his legs, his stomach—anything I could touch. In my struggles, my claws had come unsheathed, and a terrible idea entered my mind. I acted upon the urge before my morality could stop me.

I scratched one of the pidgeot's eyes out.

The screech he emitted was unlike any I had heard before. It was filled with agony, with terror, and with hatred. He dropped me to the ground and covered his eye with his wings, his wail undiminished.

I slowly clambered to my paws. My right forepaw dripped with blood, staining the ground a dark red. Seeing him rolling on the ground gave me a sense of satisfaction. That was what he deserved for knocking out Wa'vak and trying to imprison us again.

For a brief moment, the pidgeot lowered his wings, and I beheld the bloodied eye. The eyelid had closed, but blood still streamed freely from the socket. If enough time passed, not even a Heal Pulse would be able to repair it.

At that moment, seeing that eye, the haze of retribution dissolved, and guilt settled in its place. I had just robbed a pokémon—a fellow pokémon—of half his eyesight, and I had done it without a second thought.

 _What have I done?_ I asked myself.

The other assailants, numbered four in total, stared at the writhing pidgeot in horror. Then, they rounded on me, malevolence seeping from them. Another pidgeot, hurling expletives at me without restraint, surged toward me, her wings glowing sky blue.

Rather than attempt to fight back, I dodged to the side. The female pidgeot rushed by me, unable to pivot tightly enough to nick me. She tried for another pass, but blue paws wrapped around her talons and drug her to the ground. A Force Palm exploded on her back, and she slumped flat-out on the grass.

"Arceus, Mona, that was brutal," Ray said. His voice lacked its typical sarcastic tone. Behind him, a fearow lay unconscious. The last two, another pidgeot and a swellow, were flying away with their injured friend, perhaps to find someone who could heal him.

Tasha fluttered above Ray's head. She appeared to have fully recovered from the Air Cutter, but her exhaustion was still fairly evident. The effects of her days of captivity still seemed to be in force.

"She did what she had to do. That pidgeot was going to do something similar to her," Tasha said, defending me.

 _Why would she defend me, anyway? I was horrible_ , I thought. In spite of that thought, a part of me felt vindicated. I _had_ been in danger, after all…

Tasha coasted down to me. "Thanks for saving my butt back there, Maria," she thanked.

"Mona," I corrected, then added, "you're welcome."

"Oh, Mona. Mona, Maria, same difference. I'm cruddy at names," she said. "Still, though, thank you."

"Yeah, yeah, you're good," I said. _Effusive, much?_

Meanwhile, Ray had knelt down by Wa'vak. He skimmed over the liepard's form, then spoke, "He'll come around. Let's get him somewhere safe."

Hoisting the upper half of Wa'vak's body onto his back, Ray pulled him into the shelter of the damaged house. I followed him, unable to help because of my physiology. Tasha swooped in behind both of us. As soon as we had entered the building, I dropped to the ground, my legs shaking.

Ray set Wa'vak down on the floor. Then, he slumped down next to the liepard, his back thumping against a wall. His exhaustion burst forth in one fell swoop. I had never seen him so winded before.

Tasha hung from the eaves of the door. She curled her wings around her body and faced toward the river. I followed her gaze, and my heart soared a little at what I saw. The townspeople had begun to the push Yurk's gang downriver. Now that I was out of the moment, I could tell that the townspeople outnumbered the thieves by a respectable margin.

 _They were too overconfident_ , I thought. _Strength in numbers, as they say._

"We should just hang here," Tasha said. Then, as if realizing something, she added, "Well, I'll hang here. You guys are sitting, so I guess you'll just sit there."

I snorted at her pun, my mood still remaining darkened and brooding. Ray simply closed his eyes and exhaled. In the fading evening light that shone from the hole in the roof, the dark fur of his body partly blended with the shadows of the building. When he opened his eyes again, the amber hue stood out startlingly.

Suddenly, he jerked his legs under him and surged to his feet. "Get down—!" he cried.

Too late, I glanced upward. All I could see was a mass of feathers; then, talons wrapped around my midsection and lifted me into the air. My assailant and I sailed out of the gap in the ceiling and to the fight downriver. From the damaged house, I saw a blue form dart of the entrance.

I wriggled desperately in my captor's hold. The pink talons around me only tightened more. I attempted to form a Swift, but my focus was so skewed by my exhaustion and vertigo that the glowing stars sailed wide from their mark. This was fortunate as I had not properly considered the implications of stunning the pokémon that was keeping me in the air while I was in mid-air.

Below me, elemental attacks crossed each other like an ariados's web. I spotted N'aliq slash at a leavanny, trading blows with the bug-type despite her obvious type disadvantage. Seeing her brave struggle renewed my determination, and I resumed struggling. Taking a deep breath, I screamed as loudly as I could in defiance of the talons crushing my lungs.

"Shut up!" came a voice from above me. I ignored it and screamed again. This time, the talons cut off my breathing, forcing me to stop.

As I fought for another breath, I heard a loud clap come from below me. My hair stood on end as a bolt of lightning soared up from below and struck my captor. She shrieked in pain, and she involuntarily released me. I gasped as air rushed back into my lungs. That was I all I had time to do before I crashed into the river.

For frightening seconds, my disorientation prevented me from distinguishing up from down. Thankfully, the current was gentle, and I soon righted myself. Surging toward the surface, I broke free of the water and inhaled deeply. Several feet up-shore, a pidgeot stood hunched on her talons, her expression one of pain.

Thanking the person who had saved me, I paddled to the bank and crawled out of the water. As I shook out my fur, I surveyed the scene before me. In the time that I had fallen and surfaced, the tide had shifted even more in the favor of the townspeople. Now, only a few of Yurk's gang remained, and even then, they were being dealt with quickly.

However, a large number of the townspeople had been put out of commission. I counted nearly as many allies as foes scattered about the area.

A horrible sinking feeling overtook me. I had never thought that people could be so vicious with each other. I never thought that people, other than criminals, would go at each other with such a malicious intent.

Then again, I never thought that I could, too. My forepaw still bore the stains of the pidgeot's blood.

Upriver, I spotted Eris weaving around two of the thieves. With a gracefulness that I had never seen, she pivoted on a heel and drove her foot into the side of one. Maintaining her momentum, she slid under her other opponent's attack and nailed him with a Sky Uppercut. The pure force behind her blow sent the pokémon sailing more up than out, and he landed with a sickening thump.

One glimpse of her face told me all that I needed to know. She wore this look that shocked me to my core: one of pure, unadulterated _fury_. She was thunder rolling over a prairie, a being so enraged that one felt drawn and repulsed at the same time. As she bore down on the first pokémon, I was relieved that she was so far away.

A drop of water dripped into my eye, and I hastily blinked it away. When I refocused, I noticed that N'aliq had defeated the leavanny and was advancing on Yurk, one of the few left standing. The sun shone directly behind him, casting the front of body in shadow. Behind him, the ground dropped away. I heard the load roar of a waterfall and realized that we stood at the top of Sheerdrop Falls.

Judging from Yurk's haughty posture and the many unconscious townspeople scattered nearby, I figured that he had been the one to cause the most damage. My stomach curled, and my hair stood on end. Could a guy this powerful really be stopped?

 _Then why is N'aliq approaching him?!_ I thought.

The liepard squared off in front of Yurk. A red streak stained her fur, occasionally dripping fresh blood onto the ground, and her breath wheezed in and out of her lungs. Compared to her, Yurk was as fresh as a newly-opened rose.

"For months, Yurk, we put up with you," N'aliq growled, inching closer to the granbull. "For all that time! We've been suffering from the forest's sickness as well! You had no right to do what you did. Why do it?"

Yurk inhaled calmly. N'aliq's passion appeared to sway him little. "I've seen what the true world looks like. It's dark out there. I want to change it. Now that I've been given the power, I'm simply acting on my desire."

"Desire? Your desire! These people were your neighbors and friends. How could you do this to them?" she croaked. She had crept even closer now. I wanted to shout at her to move back, but my jaw remained locked tightly.

"You're just a remnant of who I once was, and any ties to my past inhibit my present," Yurk said, completely ignoring N'aliq's question. His jaw parted slightly. In the blink of an eye, he surged toward her and grasped her by her throat. She sputtered as he lifted her into the air, and her attempts to claw him were in vain.

Barely whispering, N'aliq eked out, "Do we really mean nothing to do?"

Yurk closed his eyes and raised his arm higher. "Of course not. You do mean something: you mean the death of my past."

His eyes opened. They were pitch black.

Pivoting on his feet, he wheeled toward the cliff and swung out his arm in one fluid motion. His hand released its grip on N'aliq's throat, and she soared over the edge of the cliff. The liepard disappeared without a sound.

"N'aliq!" I screamed, my voice returning to me all at once. Whirling toward Yurk, I said, "You bastard!"

Yurk merely laughed. "Oh, Eevee, you should know how this feels. You've felt it yourself, haven't you?"

Something strained within me. My muscles quivered, and my breath came out heavier.

"You're despicable," I uttered. The feeling surged, and I felt this undeniable sense of _power_ take over me.

"I was right. You and I are one and the same," Yurk said.

"I'm _nothing_ like you!" I shouted back. "I wouldn't kill someone just to do what I want."

"Then you are still blinded to the truth," Yurk said. His left hand curled into a fist, and black smoke rose from it.

"I know the truth, and there's no way you're doing is even close to it," I said. I lowered my belly close to the ground and settled into an offensive stance.

"Do you really think _you_ can challenge _me_?" Yurk cried.

Those words penetrated me. The emotional haze that had settled around me dissipated. What was I doing? How could I hope to beat him?

In my moment of distraction, the granbull attacked. He dove at me, hand outstretched to grab me. I snapped out of my reverie and dove to the side, but I had moved too late. His hand grasped my throat and lifted me high off the ground.

Yurk examined me with his black eyes. As I gazed into them, a deep fear welled up in me. Those eyes spoke of something so unnatural, so unholy, that it should never have existed.

"So, this is how true fear tastes…," he muttered, entranced. I wheezed as my oxygen supply rapidly depleted.

The feeling from before in me coiled tightly. Desperate, I responded to it and lashed out with a paw. Yurk intercepted it with blinding speed. His head turned to view my paw, which was encased in shadows not so different from his. Grinning like a drunk, he grabbed it and held it away from him.

Dark spots danced at the edges of my vision. My tail fell limply against my haunches, for I could not hold it up any longer. My head lolled as the last vestiges of air disappeared from my lungs.

Just when I felt that I could not hold out anymore, a bright orange fist slammed into Yurk's jaw. Stunned, his hand released me, and I fell, coughing, to the ground. I was pulled away from Yurk before he could recover.

"Stand back," Eris ordered. Still hacking, I could not reply, much less thank her and her less-than-timely entrance.

Rubbing his jaw, Yurk craned his head toward Eris. His hand fell slack to his side, thought, when he said, "What the heck _are_ you? What am I…seeing…?"

In reply, Eris cracked her knuckles. "You see more than you deserve," she said.

At that comment, I expected Yurk to take the offensive. Instead, he stepped backward. His recalcitrance confused me.

 _Just what is Yurk seeing? Can he something special with those…eyes…of his?_ I thought.

Eris crept forward, her hands readied at her chest. Yurk jerked his hands up, then circled to the right. Eris matched his movements and began circling to her right. I shuffled away from them in dread expectance.

Ever so slightly, Eris twitched her foot. Yurk drew up his hand in response, and Eris surged at him. The two collided, his fist meeting her foot. Eris rebounded off Yurk's blow and twirled around, swinging her tail in her wake. Yurk dropped his arms to block her tail, but the pure force behind the blow staggered him back a few steps. He now stood within feet of the edge of the cliff.

Using her momentum, Eris launched punch after punch at Yurk, her movements like a whirling tornado. Forced on the defensive, Yurk deflected the punches than he could and absorbed those that he could not. His feet shifted back little by little with each blow.

When Eris stretched her arm toward his head, he leaned to the side and pushed her arm down. Surprised by his change in tactics, Eris stumbled forward a step. It was all the gap Yurk needed. He lifted his leg and kicked her square in the back. She fell forward, her upper body tipping over the cliff's edge. With a cry, she tumbled off the cliff.

"Eris!" I cried. Yurk dropped onto his knees, his face contorted as he sucked in deep breaths. All of his fighting had caught up to him; his body now shook from the effort to hold itself upright.

"You're next…Eevee…," he panted.

Behind him, I saw a pair of orange hands poke over the edge of the cliff. With a mighty heave, Eris pulled herself up from the edge. Only just now noticing her, Yurk exclaimed and pushed himself to his feet.

"How did you—?!" he exclaimed. Eris cut him off by grabbing his shoulders. Too exhausted to struggle, Yurk barely protested as Eris pivoted on her feet and tossed him. He sailed over the edge, falling far into the waters below. Any sound that his splash would have made was muffled by the roar of the waterfall.

As Eris stood where Yurk had once been, I said, "Eris, you're alive! Thank Arceus! How did you manage to get back up?"

As if noticing me for the first time, Eris whirled on me. Her eyes narrowed, and she advanced on me. Intimidated by her aggression, I backed up while asking, "Eris? What are you doing?"

"You're another one of them. I thought they were all gone," she said. She closed in on me faster than I could retreat.

"Them? Eris, wait! I'm not one of the thieves!" I said. _Is she going crazy?!_

"No, you're not. At least they deserve to live," she stated cryptically. She raised an arm, and her fist glowed brightly once more. Her intentions were clear.

"Eris, stop! It's me, Mona! I'm not your enemy!" I begged as she hovered right above me.

"Beasts like you and that granbull are always the enemy," she uttered. She pulled back her fist in preparation to attack.

"DON'T!" I screamed. At my outburst, Eris hesitated, and her eyes slowly widened. Then, her head twitched outward, and she emitted a gurgling sound. She sagged to the side and dropped to the ground. Behind her stood Ray, his fist in the act of lowering back to his side.

His shoulders rose and fell as he deeply exhaled. The tension knotted in my stomach unwound all at once, and I tipped back onto my hindquarters. As the sounds of fighting dimmed into silence, our gazes remained transfixed on the unconscious breloom.

* * *

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	17. Chapter 16: The Split Self

**\- Chapter 16: The Split Self -**

The thieves quickly surrendered after Yurk's plunge. Without the advantage of the overpowered granbull, the difference in numbers became blatantly obvious. As I soon discovered, most of them had given up just by witnessing Eris defeat Yurk. Honestly, had I been in their paws, I might have done the same. Watching Eris fight had been like watching a tornado: equally impressive and horrifying.

The Rocky Springs citizens still conscious gathered up the thieves and placed them under guard in the center of the town; they brought their own to the doctor for care. Two pokémon, one of them the chansey that Eris had defended earlier, were dispatched to the waterfall's basin to find any survivors. Not wanting to leave Eris face-down on the ground by herself, I waited for their return, dreading the worst.

The chansey and her companion arrived soon after they had departed. Leaning on the chansey was N'aliq, her fur plastered to her skinny body. Her ears were pinning themselves against her head, and her whiskers drooped dismally. Nevertheless, I smiled in relief from both the fact that N'aliq was alive and the fact that Yurk was apparently not.

My ears picked up N'aliq's conversation with the chansey: "It was horrible, Dee. I saw him fall. He hit the water in the exactly wrong place. The rocks skewered him. I'll never forget it…"

The heat fading from my blood, I felt my heart twinge. As much as I had hated Yurk, death had seemed so harsh. He had not killed anyone—at least, none here. He had no chance for atonement; his life had simply ended. Was it cruel fate?

Sensing that I wanted to be alone with Eris, Ray had left us before the search party had left for the waterfall. Right after the party returned, an ursaing arrived with Wa'vak leaning on him. N'aliq saw her mate and pushed away from her chansey friend. The two reunited joyfully, N'aliq with a sob and Wa'vak with a solemn frown.

While another group headed down to retrieve Yurk's body, I waited for Eris to awake. Her face held a pensive countenance, accentuated by the twilight gloom. A cool breeze brushed my fur, so I curled up next to her for warmth. I remained in this position, my tiredness dulling my thoughts, until I felt her shift against my back.

"Eris? Are you awake?" I asked without turning.

The breloom shivered. Concerned, I rose and faced her. She had rolled onto her back, her face to the gray-blue sky. Then, she made eye contact with me, and I noticed how glassy her eyes were. A sob wracked her throat, and tears started streaming down her face.

"Hey, what's wrong?" I asked, trying to be as gentle as I could. I knew well what could be wrong.

Her lip trembled as she raised her head to speak. "M-M-M-Mona, I-I…I nearly…k-ki…y-you," she stuttered in between hitched breaths.

"Eris, hey, calm down. It's going to be okay," I whispered. _I guess she snapped out of whatever state she was in right before she attacked_ , I thought. _I just can't reinforce the notion that I was scared for my life, which I was._

As soon as I had spoken, Eris shook her head in a twitchy manner. When I stepped closer to her, she immediately scooted away from me.

"Eris, please, I know that you weren't going to hurt me," I lied softly. "Just tell me what's going on."

"N-N…," she started to say. She wrapped her hands around her head, her breathing rate rapidly spiking. My mouth parted helplessly while I thought of what the heck I could do to get her back under control.

"What's going on here?" someone behind me asked. I turned to find that a whimsicott had appeared behind me. Ray stood next to him, and when I glanced at him, he mouthed the word "doctor."

 _At least, I think that's what he said_ , I thought.

"Um, she's just freaking out. I don't really know what's going on," I explained poorly. The whimsicott approached Eris, who had drawn herself into a fetal position.

"Eris, is it? How about you come with me for a moment? You probably need some rest, don't you think?" the whimsicott doctor asked her. Eris shivered, then slightly nodded her head. The whimsicott took the cue to continue and lifted one of her arms onto his fluffy backside. Eris shakily stood and leaned on him; together, the two proceeded to the town house, which stood undamaged.

I sighed after the duo had left earshot. "Nice call, Ray," I complimented the riolu. He crossed his arms, still staring at Eris as she left.

"I thought that her condition wasn't too bad," he said out of the blue. "That is, until she whirled on you in the blink of an eye."

I frowned. He never thought that until now? I found it rather obvious. Then again, he did not know her as well as I did, being her close friend.

"I heard some of those things she said to you," Ray added. His orange eyes pierced mine as he continued, "She called you a beast. Any idea what she was talking about?"

My heart froze at his question. "Um, no. No idea at all," I replied. I could not tell him about what was going on with me. What if he came to the same conclusion that Eris did? Would he try to kill me? Better to play it close to the vest—or just straight up bury my cards in the dirt. This was something I had to figure out on my own.

An awkward silence settled over us. Shifting the topic, I said, "I'm going to follow the doctor. I want to know that Eris is going to be okay even if I won't be able to see her."

His stare alleviating, Ray said, "If you think that's wise. I'm going to get some water before it gets pitch black."

My heart fluttered with relief as he sauntered to the most terribly damaged area of the village. As much as Eris had panicked when I was near, I did not want to leave her fully alone. I could sit outside of her door and wait for a while before I spoke to her.

I trailed into the townhouse through the still-open front door, pausing in the anteroom. The shadowed interior whistled softly as the evening breeze trickled through the door. Gently pushing the door shut, I padded straight across the room into a wide hallway. At the end of this hallway, candlelight shone from a small room, the one where Eris, Tasha, and I had put our stuff in for the night.

Mere pawsteps from the room, I heard a chocked sob emanate from within it. I reclined against the ground and out of sight; the doctor nor Eris gave any indication that they had heard me approach.

As Eris sniffed again, I fought back my own tears. More than anything, I wanted to know what was going on with her. From how she was acting, she seemed to sense that what was in Yurk was in me. Her merciless expression had permanently frozen itself into my brain, so utterly contrary to the bubbly, shy Eris I knew.

 _I just want her to be safe_ , I thought. _Please, Arceus, let her be safe!_

I breathed out deeply, flexing my paw, the one that had struck at Yurk.

 _Let me be safe, too, Arceus._

* * *

A soft beam of sunlight caressed me, lifting me out of sleep. I yawned and stretched, a comfortable warmth ensconcing me. Smacking my dry lips, I noticed that a blanket had been strewn across me.

 _Did the doctor…?_ I thought sleepily. Grateful regardless, I stood on only my hind legs and pressed my spine to the ground while reaching forward with my forelegs, feeling a satisfying pop in my back.

"What am I doing here?" I said aloud, rolling my neck. Glancing to my right, I spotted an open door, and the memories of yesterday came tumbling down on me. Peeking subtly into the room, I spotted Eris snoozing on one of the beds. Our stuff had not been moved; a faint layer of dust had settled on my treasure bag.

Sighing upon realizing that I could not talk with Eris right now, I turned around and nearly rammed my face into an over-eager noibat. Scared out of my wits, I hopped into the air, my fur bristling.

"Arceus, Tasha!" I whispered.

She snorted with a wing over her mouth. "I'm sorry, but you looked so _serious_ that I just had to. Anyway, I was looking all over for you."

"Why—" was all I could ask before she continued. "Listen, I'm uber-grateful that you saved my butt yesterday. I totally meant to thank you yesterday, but, you know, with the whole fight, the adrenaline, I just got caught up in everything."

"Oh, you're—"

"I owe you my life. I don't say that lightly, but I really do. You're from Treasure Town, aren't you? I could tell from your guild badge. If you ever need my help at all, just come to the tavern in Snellville. It's on one of the sides of Mt. Horn; I always forget which. You can find it on a map. My hunter circle hangs out there regularly, so there's your best bet for finding me."

I blinked, then blinked again. "Oh, okay. Thanks, Tasha."

She smiled brightly. "No problema, bud! We're buds now, you dig?" To prove her point, she wrapped me in a tight hug. Wrapping a single paw around her, I returned the gesture with much less enthusiasm.

"Hey, do you know where Ray is?" I asked quickly.

"Oh, yeah, he's chilling by the lake. Weirdo," she said.

"That's not really weir—"

"Okay, well, I technically didn't finish the job, but Yurk is still dead. I guess I can claim the reward anyway," she said as if thinking aloud. "I'll just get my stuff and head out. See ya, Mona! Give Eris and Ray my _best_ wishes!"

She waved good-bye and flew out the door before I had finished waving to her.

" _She_ is so weird," I said to myself. _Is she really a bounty hunter? I always thought bounty hunters were serious and made of tougher stuff._

My head titled as another thought arose. _I wonder who hired her? Civilians can't attack anyone with elemental moves, but licensed bounty hunters can do so to felons. Did someone really get that desperate?_

I plodded out to the lake. Indeed, Ray sat near its shore, propped up on his paws. I called out to him, and he raised a paw in greeting. I joined him in his repose and asked, "Where were you last night?"

He replied, "I slept in the townhouse. I saw you shivering on the ground, so I threw a blanket over you."

I felt the heat rise to my cheeks, and I ducked my head to the side. "Oh, thanks, but you didn't have to do that."

"…Okay?" he replied. "Next time I see you freezing, I'll be sure to leave you in the cold."

"No, I didn't mean—" I started to say, turning my head back to him, when I caught a shadow of a smirk on his face. I huffed and pushed out my lower lip in a pout. He snickered.

"First, Tasha messes with me; now, you do it, too. Am I really that easy to play?" I grumbled.

"Kind of. At least you make it fun. Eris would freak out or cry," he said.

"She wouldn't cry!" I protested.

"Oh really?" he said, pointing over his shoulder to the townhouse.

"That's a different story," I defended. Sobering, I added, "Speaking of, I think we should go see her."

Ray's mirth died down as well. His paw fell back onto the ground. "How was she?" he asked.

"I didn't try talking to her. She didn't talk much, anyway. She just sobbed until she fell asleep," I said.

"Then shouldn't you go see her?" he asked.

"I don't know. I think she was crying because of me. She might start up again if she sees me," I said in a hushed tone.

"Then do you want me to come with you?" he posed. He pushed his paws off of the ground and rested them in his lap.

"Oh, that's nice of you," I said, surprised. "Yeah, let's both go."

Ray nodded his head once, then stood. "Okay, then. Let's see if she's awake," he stated. He casually strolled toward the townhouse, leaving me to follow him in mild confusion about his behavior.

 _When did he start being so compassionate? I thought he was only capable of sarcasm and apathy_ , I thought. Someday, I was going to figure out that riolu. Right now, I had more important matters to address.

Inside of the house, we gently opened the door to Eris's room. Expecting her to still be sleeping, I was surprised to discover that she was awake. Her lips gingerly sipped from a cup, and plate with jelly toast and coba berries lay on her sheets. Ray entered first, and she smiled lightly at him after swallowing her mouthful. When I stepped in after him, that smile melted into a grimace.

"Morning, Eris," I said cheerfully. She refused to look at me, her gaze trained steadfastly on the cup in her hands. Her knuckles turned a pale orange, the sign of a tight grip.

Ray glanced at me and motioned his paws in the universal "get-on-with-it" gesture. Frustrated, I mouthed back, "I know." As he raised his paws in surrender, I trod closer to Eris.

"Eris, if you're not in the mood to talk, I understand, but I—I just want to know what's going on," I said.

Eris's grip on her cup only tightened. I bit my lip. The silence between us stretched further and further. The pale tone on her knuckles had turned nearly white. Then, she suddenly relaxed, and she set the cup on the nightstand by her bed.

"I've never told anyone this. Ever. Not even you, Mona," she whispered hoarsely. Her usual stutter had vanished. "I didn't want to think about it ever again."

I exchanged glances with Ray. This was worse than I thought. She's been keeping something from me? How horrible could it be?

Eris cleared her throat. Her voice still sounded rough when she continued, "I had— _have_ —this condition. I thought it was gone. I thought I wouldn't have to deal with it again."

I bit my lip more strongly than before. "Eris, what condition is it?" I asked her.

Finally, she raised her head to look me dead in the eye.

"I have a split personality disorder."

My heart skipped a beat. My lungs seized within my chest. Horror wrapped around me and squeezed all other emotions from me. Instinctively, my tail curled toward my belly. I had heard of split personality disorder, but I only knew it by name and its reputation for giving the afflicted a nightmarish lifestyle.

 _Why did she keep this from me? How did I not see this earlier?!_ I mentally exclaimed.

In my moment of inward chastisement, Ray suddenly strode forward and leaned on one of the wooden bedposts at the foot of Eris's bed. Craning toward Eris, he said, "How long have you had this?"

She rested her head in her hands. "I don't know, years? It's—I thought it was gone. I should have listened to you, Mona, and now I almost killed you…"

I snapped back to attention. "Eris, listen, I'm alive. You didn't hurt me, okay? There's no need to panic."

"No, Mona! This is bad, bad, bad," she reprimanded me.

"Tell me why it's bad," I urged of her. If I could find out the scope of the problem, and if she tells me more about the disorder in general, then I could help her. She should not have to go through this alone.

Eris gripped her bedsheets. In my mind, I flashed back to when I sat next to Kyle's bedside, asking him questions about his violent encounter with Shroud. What an unwanted sense of déjà vu.

"It's bad because… Well, you need to know something first. My current dad is…actually my stepdad. My real father was mean. In the end, at least," she began.

"Five years ago, I didn't live in the Oran Forest. I lived in Blueport, the port city on the north of the Notos Sea. You know, the one east of Zero Isle? Anyway, my birth father worked in a shipping company, and my mom stayed at home. Things were great until hurricane season hit. My father's company kept losing ships to hurricane after hurricane, and they already lost a rash of shipments to pirates earlier that year. The company had to downsize; my father lost his job.

"He couldn't find a job in the shipping business because everyone had bankrupted or closed their doors. He couldn't find a job in other fields because he didn't have a high enough education. Not even his old coworkers helped him.

"He…got really bad. He started using what little money we had left in the town's tavern. My parents always fought. It was always money, money, money. When food started to run out, my father started abusing me. He called me so many things, Mona. To him, I was just baggage. I was just another mouth, ugly and useless and dumb and—"

"Eris, you're none of those things," I interrupted. "You are so beautiful and kind. Your father had no right to abuse you."

Eris did not smile. She loosened her hold on her bedsheets and continued, "He only got worse until the point where he beat me for even the littlest things. I don't think he ever was sober. I can't tell you how many times I wanted to fight back, but I couldn't. I couldn't. I couldn't hurt my father, no matter how much he hurt me."

My heart wrenched.

"One day, he decided that he was through with me. He beat me until I was so weak that I could barely move, then he dragged me out of the house. I think my mom was screaming. We lived close to the harbor, so he went down to a dock and threw me in the water. The water was so cold that I was knocked out. I should have died."

Here Eris paused. Then, she pulled off a layer of her sheets.

"The next thing I knew, I was standing over my father, who was bloody and unconscious. My fists were covered in his blood. My mom was trembling next to me; she looked even more scared than she had been of my father. We left him there and went home. We moved out of the house the next day and went to a nearby homeless shelter, and my mom filed for divorce. We left to stay with her family in Apple Woods as soon as the trials were over.

"I kept having blackouts, though. We eventually went to a doctor for treatment, and we were referred to a specialist, who told us that I had the disorder. She told me that the abuse from my father most likely triggered the disorder. She gave me medicine and counseling, and eventually, I stopped having episodes. My mom got a new fiancé, a new job, and a new house, so we ended up in Evergreen.

"That's…all that happened. It must be coming back. W-W-What do I d-do?" she finished with a cry, her stutter returning as her resolution faded.

Her tale stupefied me. I did not know what to do, so I did the first thing that came to mind: I hugged her. She replied in kind, and we held each other for a long moment. When we let go, the puffiness in Eris's eyes still lingered.

"We'll get through this, Eris. We will. For now, you should get some more rest. Yurk did a number on you." I told her. _Well, the other you, but it's still you._

She nodded silently, but her forlorn expression persisted. Ray stepped away from the bedpost and paced back to the window. I heard him sigh and saw him lean on the windowsill. This was a lot to process.

"Let's leave Eris for now, Ray," I said. He turned toward me and looked at the door.

"Yeah," he replied. He followed me out the door, and I waved good-bye to Eris before Ray pulled the door shut. Silence pervaded the atmosphere. Ray ran a paw through the fur on his head.

"She never told you that before?" he asked me, his voice gruff.

"Never. I wish she had," I replied.

 _Why hasn't she ever told me that before? I thought we shared things like that. Why can't we share things like that? I trusted her. She should be able to tell me things like that. We're friends, aren't we?_

 _ **Why can't I trust her?**_

"Hey, there you two are," someone called to me and Ray. Ray muttered something under his breath that sounded a lot like "thank Arceus." I turned to the other end of the hall, where Wa'vak was jogging toward us. Judging by his steady gait, he seemed to have recovered from yesterday. Dirt coated his fur in splotchy patches.

"We could use your help cleaning up the mess outside," he stated. Out of breath, he waved a paw to his right in lieu of an explanation as to where he wanted us to help.

"No problem. We'll help," Ray answered for the both of us. Personally, I wanted nothing to do with the clean-up efforts, but a nagging part of me told me that I owed the favor to the townspeople. In the fight between conscience and desires, conscience won.

"Yeah," I agreed with Ray.

"Perfect. We'll get you started with cleaning up roof timbers."

* * *

In a rough circle, the townspeople and I gathered around a fire. The sun had disappeared beyond the horizon a while ago, and we had only just finished our task. While not a lot had been damaged, I was surprised with how long our efforts had taken. My paws cramped from carrying extra weight for several hours.

A lopunny lay a bowl of carrot and broccoli stew down in front of me. Thanking him, I lapped at my portion, savoring the creamy flavor. When everyone had received their food, I paused in my consumption and cleared my throat. I opened my mouth to speak, but the silence crushed my confidence. I bit my lip, waited another minute, and took a deep breath.

 _You need to say this. Just say it_ , I told myself.

"Um, everyone, I want to apologize," I began. A host of stares fell upon me, and I hesitated. Squirming my paws, I continued, "We—I brought this upon you all. If we hadn't taken the fake job request, then none of this would have happened. I'm really sorry."

Almost as soon as I had finished speaking, Wa'vak, who sat across from me, said, "Don't be. This was bound to happen anyway."

Taken aback, I thought, _This was not what I had expected._

"What do you mean?" I asked the liepard.

"Yurk's been causing us trouble for a long time. Things were bound to go downhill eventually. We're just lucky that no one is dead," he said. He did not mention Yurk. "Now, are you three planning on sticking around, or do you have some place to be?"

With guilt, I said, "We do have somewhere we have to be. We have to head out east over the Continental Divide," I answered.

Wa'vak nodded appraisingly. "I figured you had to go. I'd be careful out east. Bandit activity is on the rise over there," he warned.

"Really? Thanks for letting us know," I said. _We'll have to stick off the main trail routes, then._

A thought popped in my head. "Oh, where's Tasha? Did you see her at all today?"

"You mean the noibat? Yeah, I saw her. She said she had to head back; she was late and could 'lose her head'," he answered. He shrugged, and I shrugged back. That noibat was a mystery to me.

Coming from behind me, someone plopped down next to me. I turned my head and, shocked, saw that the person was Eris. She gave me a small smile in greeting, and I called for some food to be brought for her. As the lopunny that gave me my food walked over with Eris's food, I felt the weight of a stare boring into me. Glancing to my right, I connected eyes with Ray. As soon as I did, he looked down at his food. Frowning, I returned to mine.

His eyes, for a split second, seemed sad.

* * *

The sun burned brightly overhead. I shifted the strap of my treasure bag into a more comfortable position. Ray, Eris, and I were perched at the edge of town in the middle of the main road into the forest. The path wound eastward, where the silhouette of mountains loomed on the horizon. We had lost time here, so we were now hard-pressed to be able to reach the Ruins of Eld by the eve of the twenty-first of Equinox.

To see us off, Wa'vak, N'aliq, their kits, and a few others followed us to the trail head. I did not know that the liepards had kits, but gosh darn, they were adorable. Both were girls perhaps only a year or two apart. They darted around their parents in a frolicking frenzy.

"You kids stay safe out there," Wa'vak said.

"We will. Don't worry," I reassured him. "Thank you for all you've done for us."

The townspeople had given us provisions to restock our supplies. We would be able to last for several days without foraging because of their generosity.

"You're welcome. You come back anytime," N'aliq croaked, her voice still hoarse.

"W-Will you b-be okay?" Eris asked.

"Yeah, once the army gets here. They should take care of Yurk's cronies for us. Hopefully, they'll be sympathetic and not bring up charges for damaging use of moves," Wa'vak responded.

"I hope they'll understand," I concurred.

"Me, too. Now, I don't want to hold you any longer than I should," Wa'vak said. He waved a paw toward the east, adding, "Y'all should get going."

"Y-Yeah," Eris said quietly.

"Uh-huh. Thanks, Wa'vak and N'aliq!" I said, waving good-bye. With that, we began to hike down the road. Before we got too far, we suddenly heard a loud squeal. Confused, I pivoted around and spotted the kits sprinting after us, Wa'vak close behind them.

"Wait, wait, wait!" the older kit cried. Both of them approached Eris and skidded to a stop. The younger one held a doll in her mouth. Gingerly, she set it down at Eris's feet, and Eris picked it up. I peered at the doll, which was a rather plain, simple copy of a rockruff.

"We want you to have it," the older one said.

"So you can remember us!" the younger one finished.

Eris smiled. "Th-thanks."

The two kits ecstatically grinned and darted back to Wa'vak. Herding them back to town, Wa'vak waved a paw in a final good-bye. I returned the gesture, then asked Eris why they would have given her their doll.

"Oh, they c-came to play w-w-with me yesterday, and we p-played with dolls most of th-the t-t-time," she explained. Holding up the doll, she added, "I p-played mostly with th-this one."

"That was nice of them," I complimented.

"It was," Eris agreed.

Ray coughed to get our attention. "We're wasting daylight. Could we start walking already?"

I sighed. "Okay, okay, Ray, we're walking." The riolu rolled his eyes and took the lead. Eris and I followed him into the woods, the sun disappearing behind the canopy of leaves above us. We had a long journey ahead still, but I felt like I was accelerating more and more as time passed. An unshakable sense of premonition pressed on me as we marched onward, eastward-bound.

* * *

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